Onward! Precure!
by YuriCherie
Summary: The story about a new group of Precure, the Precure that protects the future. The story about a girl who admired the Precures before, two pairs of best friends who drifted apart, and the story about their anticipation, imagination, motivation and optimism towards the future. (And yes, I made it happen in Heartcatch universe.)
1. Chapter 1: the Start (part 1)

**Onward! Precure!**

* * *

 **A/N: I've always wanted to make this story, putting me and my friends into the universe of Heartcatch Precure, and I finally found the time to do this!**

* * *

 _Italics: thoughts_

CAP LOCK: TECHNIQUES/ SHOUTING

* * *

 **Chapter 1: the Starting Point of a Long Run (part 1)**

My name is Cherie Kibouka, it directly translates to "beloved flower of hope" in French and Japanese. I'm a secondary 1 student, a seventh grader. My hobbies are... well, a lot (not that I really excel at any of those): drawing, fashion designing, flower-viewing and/or planting, piano-playing, writing stories, singing, reading fairytales...

Speaking of fairytales, have you ever heard of the legend of the Precure? Well, more of an urban legend. Anyway, I found myself intrigued to find out more about this urban legend of four girls fighting off monsters.

For a few months, I've been collecting information about these girls from the words of the citizens of my hometown – Kibougahana. For now, I know that they are a group of four magical girls that had appeared three years ago in a period of about 10 months, then they were seldom seen or heard any time or places else, though an owner of a fashion store once told me she had seen them in France when she was travelling.

From what I've heard, there had been an introverted but strong pink leader – Cure Blossom.

A hyped, energetic, positive and a bit silly blue Cure – Cure Marine.

A golden yellow Cure who had been strong on both offence and defence – Cure Sunshine.

And lastly, I can tell she is my favourite Cure just by hearing the description, a silver and purple Cure, she had been deep and smart and calm and strong and elegant. She was everything I've ever dreamt to be in life.

Yet, not all people believe in these legends...

* * *

"Cherie, I thought we are over with this legend," the girl sitting next to me said.

She is Carmen Akahoshi, my friend from primary school. She isn't the exact definition of "a great friend", but she's nice nonetheless, not that I had many people to compare her with.

"But it's not just a story, many people, old or young, had seen them some time three years ago. They have to be real!" I retorted.

I sure remember that three years ago, when we were in primary 4, a few of our classmates had said that they had seen these Precures. But we had stopped talking about it after a week or so. Now, after three years, of course people who had seen them would doubt their existence, not to mention those who hadn't seen them.

"They don't have any evidence! As far as I'm concerned, they were all probably lying so you wouldn't be disappointed," she sighed, "Don't be so childish, Cherie. This is the real world, magic doesn't exist."

I sighed as I pushed up my spectacles, she would never understand.

"Cherie, don't you remember how the boys laughed at you the first time you brought this topic up? I'm just saying this for your sake," she looked at her watch, "I'm gonna leave now, I've got basketball practice. See you at the second half of lunch, help me buy a sandwich."

"Ok. See you."

I queued up for the canteen to buy my and her lunch, someone behind me suddenly tapped my shoulder, "Hi, Cherie."

This is Cecilia Nijino, she is the only friend I have other than Carmen. I don't know why, but somehow I was already isolated on the first day of junior high. And she was isolated after she had a "small" incident with her primary school friend. The two of us eventually started a friendship... for one and a half week.

"Hi," I replied, "care to join me for lunch?"

"Eh? You're still on the research about Precure?" she asked after I told her my latest discoveries.

"You don't believe they exist either?"

"Frankly, no. But I can't deny the possibility, especially when you believe in them so much"

"Well, that's the least I can do before I can find out more," I smiled.

"At any rate, the class association have decided that we'll make a wishing tree for the class notice board design. Everyone has to write at least one wish on a heart shaped paper and we'll staple them onto the board in the shape of a tree. What are you going to write?"

"I don't know... what about you?"

"Well, we did decided that the wish has to be related to our future, so maybe I'll write something about acing my Visual Arts and Japanese Language, or something about wanting to become a teacher or an artist."

"What should I write...?"

"Well, I can almost see the future of you finding a job related to music, considering how much you love to sing."

"Maybe I can be an English story writer or an English teacher."

"Or you can come and create an arts company with me."

"Or I can study botany, is that even available in universities?"

We paused and then laughed.

"You know what? I can think about that later..."

* * *

"I'm home," I said to absolutely no one, father and mother are both working late, always.

I dumped my school bag on my bedroom table and looked at the small pinboard in my room. I filled it with all sorts of information about the Precure.

Why doesn't anyone believe? Even those who had seen them with their own eyes are starting to doubt, is it ok for me to continue like this?

 _Ugh! I can't take this anymore. I need a little... soothing exercise._ I inhaled sharply and shouted into my pillow, "I want to write better stories! I want to draw prettier pictures! I want to sing with a more beautiful voice!" I lowered my voice, "I want people to listen to me and believe me..."

Normally, just thinking of tomorrow cheers me up, but somehow it doesn't this time.

 _Chasing after stories are so futile, why am I so hung up on this legend about Precures anyway? Why won't I just give up?_

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. My mood instantly brightened when I saw the name of the caller – Susan.

Susan Amaigawa, my BFF in elementary school. She doesn't live near to me, at least a thirty minutes walk from my home to hers. And she didn't pass the entrance exam to my school, so all we could do was to call each other at least twice a week and go out together once in a while.

"Moshimoshi, Cherie?" her voice in the phone said, "Ah, it's been four days since we've talked, I have so much to tell you. You know? The day before yesterday, during maths lesson..."

I enjoyed talking to her so much, "Really? The teacher said that? Hilarious! Say, yesterday, about the Precure again..."

Sometimes I feel like she's the only person who understands me, not that I'm saying Carmen and Cecilia aren't good friends, it's just that...

"Susan... you do believe in the Precures, right?"

"Yup! If you believe they exist so badly, there's no reason for me to doubt that."

I was so happy to hear that, "How wonderful would it be if everyone believed."

"Cherie, I'm sure it'll turn around one day." Then I heard a child's voice in the background. "Oops," Susan said, "I forgot I have to take my little brother to his badminton class and now he's whining about it."

I smiled, "Well then, see you on Saturday for our usual hangout."

"Ah! I forgot! This Saturday I have to go to my friend's home to discuss the upcoming project. Sorry..."

"It's ok, school stuff always comes first."

"Welp, see you next Saturday then."

"Sure. Bye."

I hung up and put my phone back into my pocket, then I sat up and lowered my head, "I want to... I want to stay with Susan, I want more new friendships..."

Suddenly, I feel something... someone out of my bedroom window. I looked out to the right, there was nothing there; I turned my head to the left, and I crashed into something.

* * *

I fell back onto my bed as I rubbed my aching nose and adjust the position of my glasses. As soon as my eyes regained their focus, I noticed a little light pink plush toy on my windowsill.

I took it into my hands and inspected it, "Hmm... what a cute doll."

It moved, slumping its shoulders in relieve, until it saw the smirk on my face, "You aren't a plush toy, are you?"

It was apparently pretending to be a plush toy since now its now its shoulder tensed up again knowing that I found out.

"There's no use in pretending. If you are really a toy, when I bumped into you, you would've fallen onto the ground, so you are definitely not a toy," I stopped and smiled, "Don't worry, I won't harm you, you can speak."

It was starting to tremble, but now it was relaxed. It flew in front of my face and said, "I'm sorry for just now but um... never mind. My name is Iris and I'm a..."

"Fairy?" I interrupted.

At this, Iris was visibly starting to get suspicious, "Who are you? Why do you know so much? And why aren't you surprised at a talking toy?"

"I'm Cherie Kibouka. I was just guessing you are a fairy because... well, instincts. And partly because I have been doing some research on..." I sighed, "Precures."

"Cherie, is it? You looked a little... depressed," she changed the topic.

I sighed, not sure whether I'm dreaming or not, but it's nice having someone to talk to, "That's because I couldn't decide on what I can wish for the future, and because my past best friend and I are getting a little more distant with every day that passes, and also because no one believes in me when I tell them that Precures did exist three years ago."

"Your Shine... it's dimming..."

"My what now?"

"Oh never mind that. Let's see if this could help you feel better. First, why do you have to decide on what to wish for the future? Just wish for whatever you want, no matter how extravagant or how many, it's just what you look forward to, it's just your aspiration and hope. Second, if they are really your best friend, don't let them go, you have to make them stay. Third, if this makes you feel any better, I believe you, I'm a Precure fairy after all."

I closed my eyes and think for a bit. I didn't even notice a voice from my window saying, "Psst, Iris, come back." And another voice added, "What are you doing with that human? You know we aren't supposed to talk. Plus, we can't afford to waste time now."

Iris called, "Cherie, I need to go now, it was nice meeting you."

I was so focused on my thoughts that I only nodded to that. After a few moments of thinking what she had just said, I reopened my eyes just to see her fly out of the window.

"Wait!" I yelled.

I swiped my pouch off my table and grabbed my phone to put it in, then rushed out, hastily locked the door and ran down three floors of stairs.

I searched all over the sky while squinting, finally spotting three tiny figures just next to a fifteen-storeys building, I chased after them.

Have I mentioned that I suck at PE? I don't think I've ever got any higher than 65 out of 100 at school. Anyway, my point is after sprinting after them for two minutes, all I could do is say with a hoarse voice, "Iris, wait up!"

Then, something happened, a green spark blasted the three fairies out of the sky. I dashed as fast as my legs would take me towards the three falling silhouettes and suddenly I felt that I was familiar with this path. It's the path up the Kibougahana Hill!

* * *

 **End of Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2: the Start (part 2)

**Onward! Precure!**

* * *

 **Bold: emphasise**

 _Italics: thoughts_

CAP LOCK: TECHNIQUES/ SHOUTING

* * *

 **Chapter 2: the Starting Point of a Long Run (part 2)**

There is a small hill in Kibougahana. I always love it there. Beautiful wildflowers bloom all year long, the smell of fresh air, the peacefulness, and how I can overlook part of the town there.

And now, I'm running up this hill to find three fairies. Talk about a tall tale.

I found three fairies lying on the ground when I arrived at the top. Aside from Iris, there was a white one and a blue one, they were both slightly bigger. I immediately dashed towards them.

I stopped short of running as I saw a man suddenly appeared behind the fairies, and he's definitely no comrades, those aren't the eyes of a human.

He had spiky dark olive green hair and wrinkled skin. Nah, more like very very very dry skin since he didn't look like very old. But the most scary thing about him, even scarier than the visible fangs from the corners of his mouth, are his eyes. He had brown eyes with vertically slit pupils, they looked cold-blooded, like the eyes of a reptile.

"Come now fairies," he grinned evilly as he said with a deep voice, "we'll welcome you to our home, come with me and join your friend."

His hands reached for the fairies, I was alerted at this moment and ran to scooped the fairies away before he could lay his fingers on them.

"Who are you, little girl? Do you know these fairies?"

"Uh... not exactly..." I was trying my best to stop myself from trembling, "I just have to thank the pink one for something, if you don't mind."

"Why of course I don't mind, just hand them over as soon as you're done."

I backed away, "No..."

"Don't defy me, girl. Or I, Kiba, am going to make you hurt."

Iris and the other fairies regained their consciousness at this point and she said to me, "Flee, that's the only chance you have."

To be honest, I was about to run and bring them with me even if she didn't tell me to, but that was until I spied Cecilia coming up this hill from the corner of my eyes.

"Oh no," I whispered very very quietly, but apparently Kiba heard it.

"A friend of yours? How convenient," as his voice sounded, he disappeared from my sight and reappeared in front of Cecilia.

Before Cecilia could say anything, Kiba generated a green energy ball in his hand and shot it at Cecilia's chest. Then he made a gesture, like pulling a sphere out of something, as Cecilia screamed. And I saw the same green energy ball being pulled out of Cecilia's chest, but this time containing a sparkle in it.

Cecilia's body feebly collapsed to the ground, the colour of her whole body was turning dull.

"What has he done?" I asked Iris.

Iris replied, "He took away her Shine, it's a crystal of the future. It usually shines brilliantly within a person's heart but it dims when a person is worried about anything in the future, like your friend. If a Shine is separated from its host, they will freeze in time, they can't move towards tomorrow, they can't hope, they can't dream."

"What can I do about it?"

"Return the Shine to her and she'll return to normal. But once the Shine is not within her body, its light will fade more quickly, and if it does fade completely, she stays this way forever," the white fairy told me.

Just then, Kiba noticed the sketchbook Cecilia was holding, he snatched it away from her, "Ah, this will do fine."

He pushed the Shine into the sketchbook and shouted, "Teiton! Make your debut!" The sketchbook, now merged with the Shine, rose higher up. The sketchbook grew larger and grew arms and legs, then a face appeared in the middle of the sketchbook. The sketchbook turned into a monster.

"Drawing!" the monster shrieked.

I swallowed my scream back into my throat and back away silently, as soon as I'm out of his sight, I started running, "Iris, what is that thing?!"

"Just RUN!"

"Hold on a sec, what about my friend?" I braked.

"You can't do anything," the blue fairy said, "Only a Precure can purify the Teiton and retrieve the Shine."

The ground trembled. "It's coming after us," the white fairy exclaimed.

"Wait," I said as I hide behind a thick bush, "did you say a Precure can save my friend?"

They nodded.

"And you guys are Precure fairies?"

They nodded.

"Then can't you look for a Precure in this town?"

"We can," the blue one replied.

"Perfect," I said, "I'll stall the monster and you guys can go find a Precure."

"Not any random girl can become a Precure, it'd take too long," the white one said.

"Do you guys think we have a better option?" Iris interjected.

"Well no, but..."

"Go, I'll stay here with Cherie and stall as long as we can manage."

The two fairies gave her a hug and told her, "Stay safe." After they flew away, Iris turned towards me, "So how are we going to stall him?"

"I have no idea..."

* * *

And yet here I am, yelling, "KIBA! Hey, it's me again."

He rolled his eyes, "Oh man, you're a really persistent one."

"Thanks for the praise."

"That was not a praise!"

"Thanks anyway."

"Ugh. Just give me the fairies."

"About that, is it possible that you let my friend go..."

"Yes, yes, yes," he was getting impatient, "just hand over the fairies."

"...without the fairies?"

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD?!" he bursted out angrily.

"Because I asked nicely?"

He jumped behind me and kicked me in the back, I fell to the ground, then he darted back to where he had been, "Listen here, little girl, in the bad guy so I don't make deals with you, especially when I don't get anything in return."

I gave a "teehee..." and slowly stood up. _Ouch... that is one powerful kick..._

He did a facepalm, "Why would you want your friend back?"

I blinked, "Um... why wouldn't I?"

"I'm just helping her. She was worried about something in the future, and now she isn't. She doesn't need to move forward, she doesn't need to worry, she can live in the moment. Why would you want to bring her back? Don't you have something you're worried about too?"

"Of course I have, everyone is worried about something at some point. I'm worried about what to write for the class notice board, I'm worried about drifting apart from my old friend..."

He smirked wickedly, "I can help you too."

I giggled, "Life doesn't work that way, Kiba. There are a lot of worries and anxieties along the way for sure, but who knows what kind of happiness is waiting ahead?"

"But what can you do now? You pitiful little human can't possibly stand against my Teiton."

"Why are you doing this?"

"We want to stop the future from coming altogether. When a person's Shine is inside the negative-energy-extractor, each time it allows our leader to gain the power to stop the future."

I frowned, "And you're hurting my friend for that."

"Not that you can do anything about it."

"Yes, I am weak, that is true," I lowered my head and sighed, but then I took a deep breathe and confidently said, "But for now there's still a tomorrow to look forward to, the future is still filled with life and vitality. I want to grasp that future. That's why, here and now, I cannot fall!"

Suddenly a pink light surrounded me, all I can see was Iris floating in front of me.

"Is this your doing?" I asked her, and at the same time wondering when had my school uniform turned into a long pink one-piece and why am I still seeing things clearly when my glasses vanished.

"Accurately, it's mostly you. Your hope towards the time to come and your determination of not losing unless you've reached that day have qualified you as a Precure!"

"Oh... wait, me?"

"Yes you, who else can I be talking to? Now, make a wish."

"A wish?"

"Yup, a wish about the future. Your Shine can react with your strong wish and grant you power."

"Ok..." I closed my eyes and clasped my hands together to make a wish.

A good thirty seconds passed and I suddenly felt something between my hands. I opened my eyes to see a light and then saw a small pink coin-like thingy in my hands.

"That is your Future Seed," Iris said, "To transform, you'll need that and this." The wing-shaped crest on her chest shone and a magenta locket shot out of it.

"Put on this Locket of Tomorrow," Iris instructed and I did as she said, "insert your Future Seed and shout 'Precure! Susume!' to transform."

"Got it, I think..."

I took a deep breath and inserted the Seed...

PRECURE! SUSUME!

The originally round locket sprouted two branches and now looks like Iris's crest. It projected a massive screen with the wing shape in front of me. I jumped through it.

First, a rose pink capelet popped up. Then white gloves with magenta edges materialised on my hands and light taffy-colour boots with a flower shaped hole on the collar of each one on my legs. Then, the pink one-piece turns shorter with a ribbon around the waist and underneath the skirt part was a layer of sky blue, another of light violet and crimson as the bottom layer. Finally, my hair turned pink and a heart shape hairclip popped up.

As soon as my transformation was completed, the pink surrounding faded, revealing the Kibougahana Hill once again.

Kiba stares at me for a while and then groaned, "I don't understand why girls have to change clothes every five minutes or so."

"It's not just a set of clothes, it gives her the power of a Precure, the power as the light of the future, the power to beat you!" Iris pointed at him and said.

"Iris!" a shout came from behind us. Turns out it was the other fairies.

"Why'd you two come back?" Iris was slightly displeased.

The white one exclaimed, "We saw it! We saw the light!"

"So Cherie became a Cure?" the blue one was calmer.

"Yup," I chimed in.

"What's your name?"

"My name?"

"Well, we can't call you 'Cherie' after you transformed, your identity must remain a secret."

"My name, eh? Ok." I made the wishing gesture as I said, "Unlimited anticipation towards the future, Cure Hope!"

"It suits you perfectly," Iris commented.

I suddenly felt the Teiton was aiming to attack, I immediately turned around and blocked its attack with my hands.

 _Oh my gosh! Did I just blocked that with my hands?_

The Teiton was repelled and it fell to the ground, but was back on its feet in no time. It was mumbling something, "Why... why won't you forgive me? Why can't we continue to be friends? WHY?!"

"Drawing!" it shrieked again as its pages fluttered to create a strong wind, I couldn't stand still and was flung into a lamppost.

"We used to be such great friends," the Teiton cried, "I can't bear three more years without friendship, I need you. Why can't you forgive me?!"

"Iris, what is it talking about?" I asked.

"Her worries. The Teiton is speaking out her worries about the future."

' _Her friend doesn't forgive her'? Is she talking about Aozora-san and the incident between them?_

"We've never been apart! Only a few weeks or so had passed and I'm already missing your jokes, your laugh, your silly logics. What would I do without you in the future years of junior high?" the Teiton cried, at the same time, drawings of Cecilia and her ex-BFF appeared in its pages.

Kiba pulled a facepalm, "This girl is so pathetic, if they hate you, you just have to hate them back."

It seemed as though the Teiton was upset about his comment. It drew a hammer in its pages, it jumped out of the sketchbook and before I knew it, was right on top of me.

"But that's... wrong!" I exclaimed as I barely stopped the giant hammer from squashing me with my hands.

"Swat her!" Kiba ordered the Teiton.

Its force increased but I'm not giving way this time, "Cecilia, as far as I'm concerned, you completely kicked yourself out of the picture after the incident with your friend, whatever the incident was. Anyway, why didn't you go talk to her? I can't guarantee she'll forgive you, but at least you'll know what to do next. You don't even know what she thinks of you now. You've stayed out of the picture long enough, it's time to act!"

With that said, I felt a surge of power welling up inside me, "HOPE JOLT!" A light was emitted from my palm and the hammer was pushed back, it... kinda landed on the giant sketchbook somehow...

Kiba's jaws dropped.

"What's more," I continued, "Cecilia, you've got me... urm I mean your new friend here for you, you aren't alone like you were two weeks ago, so you have nothing to be afraid of."

The Teiton looked like it ran out of battery.

Iris flew to me, "Now's the time to purify it and reclaim your friend's Shine."

"Alright! So... how exactly do you do that?"

"Call forth the power to walk towards the future. Then picture your attack."

"Ok... I have no idea what I'm supposed to do but I'll try it anyways."

I closed my eyes to concentrate, shutting out the vague sound of Kiba ordering the Teiton to stand.

 _For Cecilia's sake, for tomorrow's sake, for the future's sake..._

A field of lilies and roses bushed out from under my feet. I opened my eyes and an archery bow made of pale pink petals materialised in front of me.

I took the bow with my left hand and struck an archer's pose. Then a virtual arrow popped up.

PRECURE! DREAM BIG ARROW!

I let go of the arrow. As it hit the Teiton, it diminished in size and turned back into a normal sketchbook. Then the arrow reached the energy ball containing the Shine, the energy ball shattered.

"I did it!" I turned to Iris and exclaimed, "I got it back!"

Before Iris could reply, I heard Kiba growling and went defending myself from another powerful kick.

"That's not enough, Cure Hope. You're no match for us this way. One day, we'll have you watch us wipe away this world's future," he said before he teleported away.

I stood there for a few moments, then finally remembered, "Oh gosh, I need to return the Shine."

I put the little sparkle close to her chest and sighed in relief as it went back into her body.

"You did a really good job, Cure Hope," Iris landed on my shoulder and praised.

"Thank you," I took all three of them into a hug, but loosen my grip when I felt someone was watching.

I saw four silhouettes a few miles away from me, one in pink, one in blue, one in golden yellow, one in sliver.

Suddenly realising that they match the description of Heartcatch Precure perfectly, I gasped.

Because they're backs were facing the sun, I couldn't really see them clearly. I could barely see the pink one smiled at me before suddenly flying away with capes.

 _They have to be the Heartcatch Precure, I knew they existed!_

"Hope!" Iris's suddenly call pulled me back to reality, "Your friend is waking up! Quick, detransform!"

I did what she said, the fairies all hide behind some bushes, just in the nick of time.

"Cherie?" Cecilia woke up.

"Ah, I um... found you um... fainted... here, are you okay? How do you feel?" I improvised a simple lie.

"Well, it's not like I feel like losing a part of myself."

I tensed up.

"Gotcha," she laughed.

I laughed along nervously, then immediately changed the topic, "Why were you coming up this hill anyway? You adore the view here too?"

"I don't adore it, but I love to look at the sunset here, in fact, I came to sketch it. Me and Isabella used to play really late and then run up this hill to watch the sunset. And we always got scolded for returning so late."

"What happened between you and Aozora-san anyway? You never told me."

"I'll tell you tomorrow, on the way to school. I'm a bit too lightheaded to explain it now. Why did I fainted anyway?"

"I don't know... maybe you tripped and hit your head on something."

"No way!"

We laughed.

"Are you going to watch the sunset with me?" she asked.

"Nah, I need to go home and cook."

"Lucky me, I don't need to cook tonight, it's my sister's shift."

I rolled my eyes, "It's nice having a sister."

She mimicked me rolling my eyes, "When your sister is 13 years older than you, it's like you have another mother, bugging you day and night."

"Well, the fact is I don't so I really need to head home now. See you."

"Bye."

I hurried downhill, towards the bushes they had hidden in.

"Cherie, aren't your home that way?" Cecilia pointed out.

"Yeah... I have a quick errand to run, my home ran out of... soy sauce."

I continued hurrying as I heard she shouted something like "But the grocery store isn't that way either!", to which I pretended I couldn't hear. The fairies joined me as I passed by the bushes.

"She'll be fine, right?" I asked them.

"Yes, her Shine is brightening slowly."

I let out a relief sigh, and then took them into my arms, "Come on, let's go home."

"Cherie, I'm curious, what did you wish for before you transform anyway?" Iris asked.

"I wished to not lose my friend."

* * *

 **End of Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3: Protect my Friendship

**Onward! Precure!**

* * *

 **A/N: I'm just gonna skip the self intro of the fairies.**

* * *

 **Bold: emphasize**

CAP LOCK: SHOUT/ TECHNIQUE

 _Italics: thoughts_

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Protect my Friendship**

"It happened during summer vacation, a week prior to Isa's birthday. I had been making my primary school's mascot with clay to put into the Gallery of the Graduated. I was absorbed and I hardly stepped out of my room that week, let alone hanging out with her. On the day of her birthday party, which usually only I would go, I forgot all about it. I finished the clay project that morning and I was completely relaxing after I put it into the oven to bake. But I dropped it accidentally when I was taking it out. I was busy trying to find a way of fixing it, while Isa knocked on my door.

"I told her to go away since I had been busy. I think she tried to remind me that it was her birthday but I didn't listen, instead, I replied that I didn't care.

"I couldn't fix the clay project after all, so I went to bed as if nothing happened. But I woke up the next morning remembering how awful I had been. I bolted right out of bed and to her house. As soon as she opened the door, I apologised for a few dozen times, and yet she said, 'Go away, C. I don't care either.'"

"What happened after that?" I asked Cecilia after she reached a pause in the story she promised me.

"Well, up till now, she completely shuts me out. Not that her actions aren't understandable, I was as angry at myself as she was at me. After all, what kind of BFF pretend their friend doesn't exist for a week?"

"Did you ask her to forgive you even after that?"

"Nope, she made it pretty clear that she didn't want to. Since she became familiar with people in this class, she made sure that no one suffers the same devastation she did by moving everyone away from me."

"Well, she missed a spot," I said as I pointed at myself.

"Hey, making puns is my job," she nudged me playfully.

"Anyway, back to the topic, if passively waiting for her to forgive you doesn't work, we just have to strike actively." And before she could reply, I took her hand and dashed towards the school, "Let's go!"

* * *

Both of us was panting really hard. "Why in the world did we run here?" she blamed as trying to catch her breath and change shoes at the same time.

"Sorry, I got excited," I paused and took a few deep breaths, "But wow, your PE really is as bad as mine."

Just as we finished changing shoes, we saw Aozora Isabella walk into the school.

I called, "Aozora-san..."

Cecilia covered my mouth and pulled me away, "Are you crazy? I need a plan of how to apologise to her or the chance of her even listening to me is gonna be less than zero."

"Ok, ok, how about..."

"How about we ask... I mean, **you** ask her to eat lunch with you. And then I suddenly show up and talk to her?"

"Ok, I can ask her right now."

I walked out to where she was still changing shoes, "Good morning, Aozora-san."

She nodded politely.

"Aozora-san, do you have any plans at lunch today? If not, then can we eat together?"

"Hmm... why?"

"Just want to get more friends."

"Okay, I don't see why not."

* * *

At lunch

"I see you don't have a bento either, Kibouka-san," this was the first thing Aozora-san said, and she wasn't even looking at me.

"I prefer the school canteen over my own cooking."

"Me too."

"Aozora-san, do you always eat alone?"

"Yup, still haven't made any friends."

I was about to protest because of what C told me, but she popped out from behind Aozora-san already and recited the script she made earlier, "Hi Cherie, you don't mind if I join in, right?" And she sat right next to me.

Aozora-san wasn't happy about this, "What is the meaning of this, Kibouka-san?"

"Isa, just listen to me."

"No, I won't listen, I don't want to hear it."

"I just want to..."

"I got the message loud and clear!" she interrupted loudly, "I don't need to hear it!"

I put my hand between them, signalling them to stop, "Easy, easy. Just listen to what Cecilia has to say, Aozora-san."

"No, Cherie," Cecilia looked upset, "I don't have anything to say anymore." She stood up and wanted to marched back up to the classroom.

"Wait!" I grabbed her wrist, then turned to Aozora-san, "She just wants to apologise."

"That's not it, she doesn't want me as a friend anymore," Aozora-san grumbled.

At this, Cecilia raised an eyebrow and sat back down.

"The week before my birthday, I thought you forgot, you've always had the memory of a goldfish. But I know that you don't want to have me around anymore when you told me to go away. I was so furious that I said the same thing to you the following day. I was convinced that you would not want to come close to me anymore, you didn't ask me on hangouts after that."

"You're lying! Why did you turn all the girls in our class against me then?"

"I didn't! Some of them were trying to steal your homework and copy. So I made up the best lie I could think of, I told them that if you find out they were doing this, you will tell the teacher. And you came in at such a bad timing. They started calling you 'teacher's pet' and other nasty nicknames because of me. I knew you're better off without friends like me."

"This isn't exactly what you told me about..." I said to Cecilia, then realised that it's not the best time for me to chime in.

"What are you talking about?" she raised her voice, "I thought about how devastated you would be. I pretended that you didn't exist for a whole week! I thought **you** would be better off without friends like **me**!"

There was a long long long long silence.

"I... uhm... just remember that Saori-sensei wants to see me at lunch so... later."

"We will continue this conversation after school."

"Agreed."

"But, girls..." I groaned as they left

* * *

In the next three lessons, I frequently turned around to see what they'd do. But nope, not a word, not even passing a note.

Both of them were like eagles watching their preys but haven't find the best chance to strike yet.

I just hope that they'd do something productive after school.

* * *

In somewhere unknown

(Normal POV)

Kiba knelt before a shadowy figure sitting on a throne made of dried leaves and bones.

"Kiba..." the shadowy figure spoke with a silky voice, "I expected that you are capable of collecting more negative energy. It seems you were a disappointment."

"No, Empty-sama, it was because of a pest called Precure."

"Precure, you say?" a female voice joined in.

"Yes, they're tough," Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Oh? Let's see who managed to drive away our fierce alligator," the woman bowed before Empty, she declared, "I shall be the next one to go."

"Very well, Doku," Empty responded, "You shall not keep me waiting."

Doku showed Kiba a smirk before teleporting out of their base.

She arrived on a rooftop along a not-too-crowded street, her eyes followed a girl walking by.

"Is it okay for us to stay like this, I wonder," the girl mumbled.

Doku grinned maliciously, "Seems like I found my prey." She jumped in front of the girl, "I'll be taking your Shine."

Like Kiba, she generated a red energy ball and pulled out a dimming Shine as the girl fell to the ground.

* * *

(Back to my POV)

Things weren't going well, and by that I mean no 'things' had been going on at all.

Actually, since lunchtime, I've suspected that it was just a super big misunderstanding, but whatever it is, I'm running out of patience.

"So... are you going to continue this conversation or not?"

Cecilia wanted to say something, but she was interrupted when we heard a crash and a scream down the street.

I gasped a little too loudly.

"What? What is it?" Aozora-san asked.

"No, nothing," I said nervously, "you two continue, I um... something urgent came up."

I ran down the street as Iris, Lupine and Protea — the fairies joined me.

"Iris, I need to transform."

"Wait!" she said, "Your friends are chasing after you!"

They flew higher to get out of sight and I tried to think of a way to lose them. But before I could do that, we already arrived.

 _Oh shoot!_

"What the heck is that?!" Cecilia pointed at the Teiton and exclaimed, and of course, I can't answer her.

A woman appeared on top of the bracelet monster. She had long curly dark blue hair and pale skin, wearing a brown qipao with snake skin patterns on it. But what convinced me she was definitely a foe was her eyes — the same eyes as Kiba.

"You came at last!" she said, "Teiton!"

The bracelet monster stomped towards us as I heard Cecilia screamed.

"Let's run for it!" Aozora-san exclaimed, "Kibouka-san?"

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, Iris. But we have no choice."

She flew in front of me and shot a glance at the girls, then nodded to me, "Okay, I trust you."

I walked towards the Teiton and pulled my Locket out of my school uniform, "Let's do it."

"Come forth, Future Seed!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME!

"Unlimited anticipation towards the future, Cure Hope!"

* * *

Cecilia blinked, "Cherie, did you just..."

"Yes, I just did, I'll fill you in later."

"O-o-ok..."

The villain teleported in front of me, "Finally ready, eh? Cure Hope. I am Doku, show me what you've got."

The Teiton roared and cast pieces of ornaments at us, I kept kicking them away.

"I don't want our friendship to end!" the Teiton screamed, "What if we got into different schools next year? Just like our senpais this year, they all got separated too!"

I glanced at the fainted girl nearby, "Friendships don't end that easi..."

"I don't wanna be alone!"

I froze. I couldn't help but think about my own friendship at this.

 _Alone?_

The Teiton sent me flying with a hit on the stomach, I fell next to the girls with a light cough.

"Are you alright?" Aozora-san asked.

"Doesn't it hurt?" Cecilia added.

"It does hurt, a lot."

"Then why, Kibouka-san?"

"Yeah, we could've run just now "

"It's simple, really," I took their hands in mine, "Right now, I'm not Cherie Kibouka, I'm Cure Hope, and it's my wish and my duty to protect the future of your friendship." I flashed them a smile and jumped back into the battlefield.

* * *

(Normal POV)

"What do we do now?" Cecilia asked Isabella.

"Do you think we would be a bother if we stayed here, if yes then maybe we should run and find some help."

"I don't know, but I don't want to leave Cherie here fighting alone."

"C, I know you feel frustrated but this is the truth, we can't help!"

Doku suddenly teleported in front of them, "Useless humans should just stand aside, or you'll end up like her."

She gestured at Cure Hope, who was being squeezed by the monster and screaming.

"Cherie!"

"You fiend! What do you want?!"

"What do I want?" Doku mocked, "We follow the will of our great Empty-sama, we want to make you feel miserable, we want to make you feel the future is worth nothing!"

"Run! Now!" Cure Hope shouted from afar.

Cecilia stopped trembling as Isabella reached for her hand and said, "We finally became friends again, all thanks to Kibouka-san, I think this time we should protect our own friendship."

Cecilia smiled back at her, "That's right," then she turned to Doku, "we owe Cherie one, for us to leave her like that and do nothing is..."

"Impossible!" they both exclaimed as a white and a blue light enveloped them.

"What happened?" Cecilia panicked.

"Please calm down," Lupine came into sight.

"Care to explain a little?" Isabella looked at Protea.

"'I don't want it to end here', 'I want to protect my friendship', 'I want to help', those strong feelings and determination are enough to qualify you as Precures," he explained.

Cecilia looked stunned while Isabella tilted her head and muttered, "I'm confused."

Lupine rolled her eyes, "Just make a wish strong enough to become Precures to help Hope."

"Ok..." they clasped their hands together.

 _For the sake of our friend..._

 _For the sake of our tomorrow..._

A white Future Seed came to Cecilia, and a blue one to Isabella.

"Now put that into this Locket of Tomorrow and yell Precure Susume!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME!"

* * *

(Cherie's POV)

"Cecilia? Aozora-san?" I said in awe.

"What happened to me?!" Aozora-san assessed her outfit. She was wearing a light blue dress with cloud prints, sleeveless on left side and a long sleeve on the right. A brown belt loosely tied on her waist and she had a fingerless glove on her left hand. She had blue, purple and white layers under her dress. She wore plain deep blue boots. Her hair turned light blue with a purple streak and was tied into a ponytail.

"It's gorgeous!" Cecilia was practically dancing around. Her outfit included a white blouse with pink lining and pink lace in the middle, a deep blue belt, a light pink skirt with white, lavender and light yellow layers underneath, and white arm warmers. She had short light violet boots with pink collars and white stockings. Her hair turned blonde and turned longer with a light blue headband.

Lupine landed on Cecilia's shoulder, "Now, name yourself."

"Hmm..." she pursed her lips, "ok." She took a deep breath, "Unlimited imagination towards the future, Cure Wonders!"

She struck a pose. And while no one noticed, Doku crept behind her and just when she was about to pull a sneak attack...

"Watch out!" Aozora-san shouted, alerted, as she pulled Wonders out of danger by a hair.

Wonders fell on the ground, looking shocked, "Wow! I did not see that! Thanks, Isa!"

"Tsk," Doku grinded her teeth, "Two more, eh? Hmph." She teleported away from the duo and ordered, "Teiton, finish Cure Hope first!"

At this point, the point where I completely forgot that I was bounded by the Teiton, I immediately got reminded of it as the Teiton squeezed.

"Hope!" they shouted.

"Girls, you need to fight!" Protea reminded them.

"Fight? Wait, us? How?" they harmonised.

"Use the power of Precure."

"That explains so much..." Cecilia said sarcastically.

"But we can't leave Kibouka-san like this, we have to help her, that's the entire purpose of us transforming!" Aozora-san said, "We have to try something!"

She ran towards me and tried to punch the bracelet monster, but at the last moment, it used a sharp ornament to hit her side and bound her too.

"Sorry, Hope..."

[meanwhile]

"Lupine, what do I do...?" Wonders tried to calm her trembling self, "I'm scared, I'm not as brave as Isa."

"Believe in yourself, Wonders. You have special powers."

"T-Tell me how I can help."

"Imagine anything you can see moving in any way you want, you can levitate it."

She scanned her surroundings for anything she could use and stopped on a big memorial statue in the park.

She held her hands out at it, it rose up, but fell back down immediately.

"I can't do it! My hands are shaking!"

Doku looked from Wonders to us, and smirked, "Teiton, finish these two off first."

"No!" Wonders screamed as the statue magically flew and landed on the middle of the monster with a heavy thump.

We both struggled out of it while Wonders sighed in relief, "I did it!"

We smiled. Until the Teiton weakly groaned, "I don't want to be separated from you... I don't want to be alone..."

"That's not right!" Aozora-san said, "Someone who has real friends can never be alone."

"Real friends," Wonders joined in, "even if you are separated, even if you just had a fight, will never stop thinking about each other." Then she added, "Trust us, we speak from personal experience."

"Tei... ton..."

"Hope, it's your cue," Iris reminded me.

"PRECURE! DREAM BIG ARROW!"

It was purified and turned back into the Shine and the bracelet.

"Thanks, Wonders, and um..." I paused, "Aozora-san, did you name yourself?"

"Now I can think of a good one," she smiled, "Unlimited motivation towards the future, Cure Accel!"

"Cool!" Protea exclaimed.

We laughed.

While Doku hissed from a distance, "Cure Hope, Cure Wonders, Cure Accel! I'll remember this! Ugh, I'd better not let Kiba or Gisou know about this!" She retreated.

* * *

"Are you ok?" Cecilia asked the waking girl.

"What happened...?"

"We found you fainted here."

"Ah, there was a strange person."

"You must've had a bad dream."

"Maybe so... Huh? Where's my bracelet?!" the girl asked.

"It's here," Aozora-san said as she gave it back.

"Thank you very much!" the girl said, "It's very precious to me."

"Was it a gift?" I asked.

"Yes, it is, from my best friend."

"Good for you," I smiled.

"Thank you very much, really! Goodbye."

We watched as she walked away happily.

"So," Cecilia said to Lupine, "You three, and Cherie, have some explaining to do."

Aozora-san continued, "Yes, we need to know more about this situation and what we need to do, Cherie."

"Okay," I grinned, "Let's head to my place, Cecilia, Isabella."

I stand between the two of them and we walked hand in hand.

For a slight moment, just a moment, I thought I enjoyed this more than being with Susan... and I mentally slapped myself for that...


	4. Chapter 4:Incompetence or unconfident?

**Onward! Precure!**

* * *

 _Italics: thoughts_

CAP LOCK: SHOUT/ TECHNIQUES

 **Bold: Emphasise**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Incompetence… or unconfident?**

(Cecilia's POV)

(Set immediately after last chapter, in Cherie's room)

"We don't know for sure," Protea replied.

"But there has to be some reason that the bad guys would attack Earth like this," Isa said.

"Yeah, what is their goal?" I asked.

"I think Kiba had said something about their leader gaining power to stop the future…?" Cherie said hesitantly.

"The bad guys— the Time Wraiths, simply put, wants to make every human abandon the future," Iris explained, "We aren't entirely sure how, but it seems to have something to do with their superior, Empty."

"Well, I think there's something to do with obtaining enough negative energy to cast some spells, or so I've heard," Lupine added.

"In other words, all we can do is defeat the enemies in front of us until we find out more about their objectives and stuff," Cherie sighed in frustration.

"But as Precures, we'll give it our all!" Isa said energetically.

I looked down at my hands, _is 'giving my all' enough, I wonder?_

"Speaking of which, where in this fight do you fairies come in?" Isa asked.

"Well, our home is actually a massive garden filled with all sorts of plants," Lupine explained, "Everyone in this world has a corresponding plant."

"The fairies' job is to take care of the garden," Protea continued, "Through the foliage, we can talk telepathically with the humans. Ever tried giving up but a voice in your head tells you 'Don't worry, you can do it'?"

We tried to recall, and then nodded.

"As long as it's corresponding human still carries hope, energy and a positive attitude towards their future, as long as they keep on dreaming, the plants would not wilt," Iris said, "That kinda makes us fairies the guardian of everyone's future. And that's how we're here."

"Oooh," we tried to let the information soak in but was interrupted by a doorbell.

"Ah, it must be father, wait a sec," Cherie said as she walked out of her room and we peeked out from the door.

"Welcome back."

"I'm home," said her father, then he saw us, "Oh, you brought friends?"

"Yup, Cecilia and Isabella," Cherie introduced.

"Excuse us for disturbing."

He nodded to us, we nodded back, then he continued, "Cherie, you go have fun with your pals, I'll handle the dinner."

"It's okay, Cherie, we just finished discussing our thing, right? We should leave now," Isabella told them.

"Oh I see," her father said, "Well then, go escort them, Cherie, didn't you tell me Nijino-chan can never recognise which way she came from?"

"Cherie…" I growled.

"Okay, okay," she laughed, "I'll go with them, won't be a sec."

As soon as we got out of earshot, I yelled, "Cherie, just **what** have you been telling your parents?!"

"It just slipped out when I talked about school," she shrugged.

"Cherie, your dad seems nice," Isa cut into our argument.

"Yes, he's really hospitable, especially towards you two since this is only the second time I've ever brought friends home, I didn't have many friends in primary school."

As we talked, we walked passed where me and Cherie meet up for school.

"Here is fine, I know where to go from here," I said to her.

"I'm good too, we live near," Isa said too.

"Okay, I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye!"

* * *

(Normal POV)

"Two more Precures?!" the one called Empty said, though he seemed calm, it was cleared that his voice filled with anger.

"My apologies, Empty-sama," Doku bowed.

"Guess it's my turn again, hehe," Kiba came out of nowhere.

Doku immediately rose from bowing and pointed at Kiba, "You?! You couldn't even handle Cure Hope! What makes you think you can handle Cure Wonders and Cure Accel?"

"Stop this bickering at once!" Empty exclaimed, "Very well, Kiba, you may go."

* * *

(Cecilia's POV)

Cecilia's home, evening

"Gochisousama," I said as I finished eating and dumped the dishes into the sink.

"That's fast," big sis commented when I walked back to my room.

I closed the door and asked Lupine, "Lupine, are you hungry?"

"I'm fine."

"Alright."

We paused for a moment.

"Say, Lupine, have you ever met any other Precure?"

"No. I know there are other Precures out there, but I've never seen them before. Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

"Nothing… just wanna know…"

I supported my head with my hand on the table. _Was there one, I wonder. Was there a Precure who felt the same way I did?_

(Cherie's POV)

* * *

The next morning before school

"She sure is running late…" I looked at my wristwatch (actually, it's just a normal watch worn upside down, I like it this way).

"Should you call her?" Iris suggested.

"Yeah, you're right," I took out my phone, "oh she already texted me, 'Sorry, don't wait for me, I slept very late last night so I m running late.' Oh jeez…"

I texted back, 'good luck with making it on time.'

"Come on, Iris, I don't wanna be late either."

* * *

(Cecilia's POV)

"I gotta hurry!" I said while panting.

 _Almost there…_

"Cecilia! Cecilia!" Lupine suddenly yelled from my bag, "A Teiton!"

Before I could reply, I heard a loud clashing sound in the sports ground next to my school.

"Grrr… when duty calls…" I said begrudgingly, "Lupine, let's go."

* * *

(Cherie's POV)

"Cherie! Psst! Cherie!" Iris whispered urgently from my bag.

Isabella seemed to notice too, she walked over here and asked, "What's up?"

Protea popped his head out from Isa's bag too, "A Teiton! There's a Teiton!"

"On no! We gotta get out and fight!" I said.

The school bell rang as we walked to the classroom door. Coincidentally, Kimori-sensei went in at the same time, "Where are you two going? The school bell just rang, go back to your seats."

We sighed and obediently sat back down. Then we heard the public announcement system say, "Attention all students, please return to your homeroom at once and remain there at all times until further announcement. All homeroom teachers please maintain the discipline of students. Everyone please remain calm at all times. Thank you for your attention."

"What happened?"

"Is there some kind of accident?"

They quickly got an answer when we saw the Teiton outside the windows.

"Look! Outside!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" some of the girls screamed.

"Class, calm down!" Kimori-sensei soothed.

"Now what, Cherie?" Isa asked.

"Hmm… Iris, Protea, sneak out to see if we are needed, I think Cecilia's probably there but just in case. Meanwhile, we'll think of something to get out of here and go fight."

* * *

(Cecilia's POV)

"Hahahahaha! That's the way, Teiton. Wreck more havoc!" Kiba laughed.

"Stop this at once!" I arrived panting.

"Huh? Who are you?"

"I am Cecilia Nijino, a Precure!"

"Come forth, Future Seed!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME! Unlimited imagination towards the future, Cure Wonders!"

"So you are Cure Wonders?" Kiba smirked, "Show me what you can do!"

This time the monster was a basketball hoop, and it started shooting huge basketballs at me which I had to dodge very quickly as it yelled, "I can't! I'm not fit to! I shouldn't be the club captain!"

 _Ugh! I can't keep dodging, I'll get tired out!_

Forget about tiring out, as soon as I brought my thoughts back to the Teiton, I failed to dodge the ball.

"Wonders!" Lupine was worried.

"Where's Cure Hope and the other new pest?" Kiba looked around, "Is it just you?"

 _Even the villain thinks I'm not enough…_ I shook my head… _I can't think like this!_

I jumped back onto my feet, landed a few kicks on the Teiton and inwardly cheering myself on.

But then I didn't notice Kiba teleported in front of me, he took the chance and kicked me into the sky. Without footing I knew I couldn't dodge the flying basketballs, I covered my eyes to not see what was going to hit me…

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

* * *

(Cherie's POV)

The classroom was in an uproar as Kimori-sensei tried to call Cecilia's parents.

Suddenly, one of my classmates pointed at the window and told everyone to look.

We saw Teiton and then we saw a patch of white flew by…

"Cure Wonders!" Isa couldn't help but shout.

"Cure?" Carmen heard her and then said to me, "Is that a Precure, Cherie?"

I didn't answer. While everyone was amused, the two of us were frightened.

"We gotta slip out, Wonders is in danger!" I whispered to Isa.

"Students, go back to your seats!"

She sighed, "Damn this education system…"

* * *

(Cecilia's POV)

"Cure Wonders!" Iris and Protea came flying.

"Oh my goodness!" Iris looked aghast, "I'll go notify Cherie and Isabella right away."

"No…" I called out, "I-I can't rely on them for everything. The fight has just begun, I-I can't lose here!"

Protea crosses his arms and protested, "Wonders, it's too reckless, this isn't a game, it's dangerous, you can't jus…"

"Wait," Lupine interrupted, "Let's trust her on this."

Protea hesitated for a while. "Wonders…" he started.

"Yes?"

"Don't overdo it."

"Thanks," I smiled. And then I willed my legs to stand up.

"Again? Why?" Kiba sighed, "Why won't you just stay down? Aren't you scared? Aren't you tired?"

"I'm frazzled, I feel so painful, I feel I can't do anything…"

"Then just give up!"

"No!" I shouted determinedly.

"Alright, you just chose the difficult option, Teiton! Make her give up!"

The Teiton screeched, "There's no way I can do it! Find someone else!" It dashed towards me. I blocked its punch… for three seconds… then still got sent flying.

"ARGH!" _Rough landing, ouch!_

Kiba teased, "Not that this ain't fun, but it's getting repetitive, can't you just give in?!"

"Say, have you tried…?" I uttered to the Teiton, "Me too… I think I'm incompetent too, I don't have Isa's headstrong trait and bravery, and I don't have Cherie's leadership and rationality. Even so, I'll give it my all!"

"Huh?" Kiba showed a very uninterested look.

"I can see it, can't you?" I stood up with strength, "After we've given our all…"

The Teiton cast a massive — way bigger than before — basketball at me. This time, I held out my hands, "WONDERS LEVITATION!" My magic froze the ball in midair. "After we've given our all, I can see a future of victory!"

"What?!" Kiba exclaimed, "How did you-"

"Seems like you don't know how to play this sport, Kiba," I smirked, "The one who's supposed to throw the ball… is me!" I cast it back at the Teiton, it shrunk and fitted through the hoop.

 _Yes! This is my power! I will continue on, it's my duty and my wish!_

Suddenly, my surroundings turned rainbow coloured. A surge of energy aroused inside of me. I held out my hands at the Teiton, a white wall emerged around it, trapping it inside.

"PRECURE! SPECTRUM FANTASY!"

In an instance, the white wall turned iridescent and the Teiton was purified.

I quickly retrieved the Shine and returned it to its owner.

"Crap! Remember this, Cure Wonders!" Kiba begrudgingly retreated.

I weakly sat down on the ground and detransformed.

The fairies gathered around me. "You're alright, right?" Iris and Lupine asked at the same time.

"Right," I smiled and took the two of them into a hug.

"You fought well," Protea said, clearly relieved, "Seriously, try not to do that again."

"Thank you, Protea." I said, and he looked away.

* * *

"Attention all students, the danger has been eradicated, please continue with your lessons," the broadcast said as I stepped into my classroom, inwardly smiling proudly at myself. The teacher asked me to go back to my seat and continued teaching.

As soon as I sat down, Isa whispered, "Hey, you okay?"

Though I knew exactly what she was asking about, I decided to joke, "I'm fine, because of the incident, everyone who's late today was let off easy."

"Sheesh, not that," Cherie joined in the whispering.

"Ignore her, Cherie," sighed Isa, "if she can joke, she's fine."

"Oh," I drawled, "you're talking about that, no I'm not fine. It was a really hard fight! So to celebrate that I'm here in one piece, will you treat me for lunch today?"

"Nijino-san! Please quiet down!" Kimori-sensei called.

"That means a 'no'," Isa took the chance to whisper to me.

Then we all went back to note-taking, while snickering under our breaths.

 _From today on, I'll get stronger, I'll be stronger just like them, I don't want them to worry again…_

* * *

 **End of Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 5: the Tempest of Motivation

**Onward! Precure! 5**

* * *

 _Italics: thoughts_

 **Bold: emphasize**

CAP LOCK: SHOUT/ TECHNIQUES

* * *

Chapter 5: the Tempest of Motivation

(Normal POV)

"NOOOOOOO!" Isabella shrieked.

"What is it?" Cherie asked, "Is your test results that bad?"

"Yes, it is!" Isabella exclaimed, "27 out of 50!"

"Well, at least you passed," Cherie tried to comfort her.

"Easy for you to say, you got 46!"

"Cherie, I had no idea you're so good at studying," Cecilia came by.

Isabella sighed.

"By the way, what's your score, Cecilia?"

"38."

"Even you have a higher score than me!" Isa growled and put her paper down, "I need a breather." and stomped out of the classroom with dinosaur steps.

Cherie cocked her head to one side and asked Cecilia, "What's she so worked up about?"

"It can't be helped. Isa aims to be a doctor when she grows up, which means she need to do extra good in Chemistry and Biology."

"Was she bad at studying science subjects in primary school?"

"No. Maybe now she's just not used to secondary school yet."

"Will she be okay like this?"

"Yeah, she's tough," Cecilia smiled.

"If you say so," Cherie shrugged.

* * *

"Did you fail again, Kiba?" Doku teased.

"You talk like you didn't," Kiba barked back.

"I went against against 3, you went against 1, and she just so happens to be the weakest one."

"Why, you...!"

They stopped bickering as the door to their common room swung open, stayed ajar, then closed.

"Looks like he went out," Doku rested her head on her hand, "the chameleon who loves surprise entrances."

"Yup," Kiba lazed around but suddenly bolted up, "Wait... how long has he been here?!"

* * *

"Isa?"

Hearing her name, Isabella turned around, "Hi, Aurora."

"I heard that your class got back your Chemistry test, how did you do?"

"I passed," Isa shrugged.

"Ha, I owe you a drink then, 'cause I didn't," Aurora stuck out her tongue, "I just suck at science subjects."

"From what I've known since primary school, at least you excel at languages and music."

"Oh. Thanks."

Noticing something was off, Isabella asked, "What's wrong?"

"Uhm… recently, I think my piano skills was at a bit of a fallback."

"Eh? But I love your piano playing!"

"Thanks," Aurora smiled.

"Isa!" Cecilia called from the door to the rooftop, "Do you want to skip lunch or what?!"

"Sorry, Aurora, guess I'll take that drink next time," Isabella said to Aurora. "Coming, girls!"

"Bye," Aurora shouted at the door. She sat down at a bench and let the wind mess up her hair. "That's not enough, Isa," she whispered.

She did not notice the shadow creeping close.

* * *

"Were you talking to Aurora just now?" Cecilia asked as she swallowed a mouthful of noodles.

"Otono-san from the next class?" Cherie asked too, "You guys know her? And on first name basis too?"

"Yeah, we're from the same primary school, why are you so shocked?"

"I'm not shocked. I just, think that Otono-san is a great pianist since the last time she played in the school assembly. Yesterday at choir, I also overheard Takamori-sensei wanting to ask her to be the accompanist for us."

"But she just told me that she thinks her piano skills are at a bit of a fallback..." Isa stated.

"Maybe she's just imagining it," Cecilia shrugged.

"I guess..."

"Oh look, there she comes," Cherie pointed behind Isabella, "Good afternoon, Otono-san."

Isa turned around, she frowned as she sensed something more off than it already was, "What's the matter, Aurora? Something feels really weird about you."

"Isabella," Aurora spoke slowly and softly, "I'm giving up on being a pianist."

* * *

(Isa's POV)

"W-what are you talking about?!" Cecilia asked, shocked.

Cherie looked at Aurora with her eyes widened, then turned to me, expecting me to say something.

"As I just said, I'm giving up," Aurora responded.

"But... you can't just g..." I started but suddenly felt a lump in my throat. _Give up on your dreams?_

Somehow, the marks on my Chemistry test found itself into my mind again...

The silence between us was broken by horrified screams.

"What was that?" Aurora said.

The three of us exchanged glances. Cherie then grabbed Aurora's hand and led her away, "Let's escape, Otono-san!" Iris soon followed them quietly. While me, Cecilia and our fairies rushed to the rooftop.

"It's a piano this time," Lupine looked down from the rooftop.

"A piano?!" Cecilia and me harmonised, "Well, that's a coincidence."

"Girls, you've given the Teiton it's prelude already, just transform and get on with the song!" Protea exclaimed.

"Right!"

"Come forth, Future Seed!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME!"

"Unlimited imagination towards the future, Cure Wonders!"

"Unlimited motivation towards the future, Cure Accel!"

I jumped down and dive-kicked the Teiton, only to recoil my ankle in pain, "Owww!"

Wonders couldn't help but bursted out in laughter even as she was retaining a barrier to protect some students from flying piano keys.

"Stuff it! Wonders!" I turned around on my other heel to yell at her, not noticing the piano trying to stomp on me.

"HOPE JOLT!" Cure Hope's attack pushed the piano back a few steps.

I thanked her for saving me then charged at the piano again. This time, it played a very very unharmonised chord.

"Wah!" Hope shielded her ears, "No fair! Cluster chords have died down since the early 20th century!"

Not only that, the chord also created a powerful sound wave coming our way.

"ACCEL RUSH!" I tried to use the wind current of my attack to counteract the sound wave, unsuccessfully. Both of us yelped as the sound waves hit us and threw us backwards.

"Are you okay?" Wonders came by and shielded us from some more piano keys.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hope stood back up swiftly.

"Gimme a minute," I huffed, "Ouch!"

"All as I expected," a voice behind us spoke. We all turned around to see...

"Aurora?!"

Hope stuttered, "But I just... no, I thought this girl was in the... ugh... never mind, I'm just gonna shut up." She threw her hands up in frustration.

Aurora started snickering abruptly and then disappeared into thin air.

"What?! Aurora?!"

Cure Wonders suddenly felt herself being lifted and then thrown at Cure Hope. "Waaaaaaah!" both of them yelped.

"Wonders, you're heav..."

"Don't even go there...!"

"Who are you?" I shouted to the open space.

"I am Gisou," none of the Cures could tell where the sound was coming from.

"So **you** were posing as Otono-san! Where is she now?!"

"What's the rush?" The voice snickered, "No one wants an explanation of why..."

"You heard her, Gisou!" I prepared myself in a fighting stance, I felt the wind current changed in my surroundings, "Where. Is. She?"

"Okay." A fingersnap sounded as Aurora appeared in front of me, dull-coloured and unconscious. I immediately tended to her.

At this moment, the Teiton made its move again. Wonders quickly rose to her feet and shielded me against flying piano keys once again.

"Have you noticed, Cure Accel," Gisou said, "that your power isn't of much use today?

"Perhaps you have. Do you know why? Not only have a person close to you told you that she wants to give up, you yourself are in the middle of a setback. You are swayed and weakened," Gisou finally revealed himself, a tall man with light blue green hair and the bad guy eyes, just to show a twisted smug as the wind current around me died down, "Isn't it painful? Wanting to do something but don't know if you can? If so, then why not just avoid it from the start?"

"Accel!" Protea yelled, then flew to her before Iris and Lupine could stopped him, "Your dream is beautiful! You have to..."

"Shut up, you fly!" Gisou teleported next to me and grabbed him by the head, "Who said you have a say in this?!"

I immediately turned around, with more force than ever, "ACCEL RUSH!" I sent Gisou crashing into the piano.

"H-how?!" His smug immediately turned into a confused frown.

"You're so mistaken!" I laughed as I picked up Protea and put him on my shoulder, "You revealed yourself at the wrong time, freak! Now I know Aurora hasn't give up yet, as long as she has the tiniest breeze of motivation in her dream, I will make sure that breeze can turn into a tempest!"

"Well said!" Protea grinned.

"Yeah, I know," I whispered back to him, "Best simile I've made in my life, haha."

"Tsk, Teiton!" Gisou jumped off it and commanded.

"PIANO!" it shrieked.

"Hope," I called, "We need a plan, I ain't kicking that thing no more."

"You probably won't have to," she smiled, then turned to Wonders, "Okay, my plan requires quite a bit of water, think you can levitate at least the bottom level of the school fountain?"

"Umm..."

"Don't worry, Wonders," Lupine supported, "You can do it. Just imagine exactly how you want the water to move."

"Okay..."

Hope nodded in encouragement then said, "I'll go distract it with some arpeggios and go open its lid when the time is ripe... on second thought, Accel, you can do that part or else you'd have nothing to do."

She hopped onto the keyboard and played some kind of harmony as she giggled, "This is actually kinda fun, I've always wondered how enjoyable it would be if my steps can play notes."

As the Teiton started to move around irrationally, I swallowed my question of "what is an arpeggio?" and flipped open the heavy lid of the grand piano.

Spotting Wonders coming back, Hope said, "Perfect timing! Now dump the water inside!"

She splashed all the water into the piano. The Teiton first shouted, but slowly became a wheeze, "If my piano playing can't even satisfy my tutor, how will I ever become a pianist?! I've p-practiced so hard too, w-why?"

"Then practice harder! Me too, I am experiencing a fallback too. But because being a doctor has always been my dream, I can't let this get in my way! You too, you have a great dream too, that means you have the strength to not give in!"

"Strength..." it coughed.

"What the heck did you do?!" Gisou demanded.

Hope struck her best teacher pose and subconsciously pushed up the glasses she wasn't wearing, "Instruments need to be kept nice and dry, humidity can afflict great damage on instruments." Then she turned to me, "Will you do the honours and help dry it?"

"Gladly." A navy blue sword of light materialised in my hand. I sped up at the Teiton and bring down my sword upon it, "PRECURE! CYCLONE SLASH!" The negative energy extractor broke into two. The Teiton turned back into a normal-sized grand piano (which Hope inspected at once to see if there was any severe damage) and a Shine in a gust of wind.

As I returned the Shine to Aurora, I think the marks on my Chemistry test finally left my mind.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 5**

 **A/N: Sorry I took so long to update, this chapter wasn't exactly easy to write, and it wasn't such a good chapter either so... :( sorry...**


	6. Chapter 6: Conflict

**Onward! Precure 6**

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the long wait, life is busy in high school, plus, I'm working on a new story so look forward to that as well.**

* * *

 _Italics: thoughts_

CAP LOCK: TECHNIQUES/ SHOUTING

* * *

Chapter 6: Conflict

(Cherie's POV)

"Eh?!" I was quite taken aback, "Sorano-san and Carmen had a fight?!"

Yeah, I wasn't that surprised Carmen got into a fight. I was surprised at how that Bonnie Sorano could get into a fight, she had always seemed so shy and quiet and benevolent. And I was even more perplexed at what could they possibly fight over, "Wait, what exactly did they quarrel about?"

"Quarrel is not the best word," Cecilia responded, "more like one-sided framing."

"I see a few question marks on your head," Isabella laughed, "Remember the music class presentation they did?"

"Yeah? It was really bad, I recall."

"It certainly was," Cecilia continued, "they realised it too. Carmen blamed everything on Sorano-san, saying things like 'Why didn't you practise harder?', 'Why did you choose this song?', like nothing was her fault, Sorano-san was really upset."

"Well, that's Carmen alright," I shrugged, "She never admits her mistakes."

"Cherie, this is serious, she made Sorano-san cry."

My jaws went agape hearing this, "She did?"

They nodded solemnly.

"Okay, I'll go talk to her, no one makes Sorano-san cry and gets away with it." I handed them the book I wanted to borrow, "Can you two get this book for me? The queue is long and recess is about to end."

"Sure."

"Great, then I can go talk to her right now, thanks."

I walked out of the school library, ascended the stairwell and proceeded on the way too long corridor to my classroom, I sighed in front of the door.

"What's the matter?" Iris asked from my shoulder.

"Nothing, I just hope I won't start another fight."

Upon entering the classroom, I saw Carmen giggling and chattering with five other girls, that's something she never did with me.

I approached the group and Carmen noticed me, she turned to the other girls, "Sorry girls, talk to you later." Then she walked to me, "Is something the matter, Cherie?"

"Um... Carmen... did something... happen between you and Sorano-san?"

"Hey! It's her fault."

"Even if it is, are you completely not at fault?"

She didn't (or couldn't) answer, so I continued, "Carmen, you can't always be like, you gotta admit you have your..."

"She thinks she can have everyone's sympathy by crying?!" Carmen snapped, "Seriously, Cherie! Even my new friends can try to look from my perspective, why can't you?!"

 _Carmen... this isn't right..._

To my relief, the bell rang, signifying the recess had ended. She completely ignored me and strutted straight to her seat.

 _I wonder how long it would take to have Carmen cool down this time..._

I sighed and went back to mine.

* * *

After school

(Normal POV)

"Huh?" Iris whispered to Cherie on her shoulder, "Isn't that Sorano-san?"

"Oh it is," Cherie noted, "Is it just me or does she look puzzled? Heheh, I'll go stick my nose into someone else's business." She called, "Sorano-san!"

Bonnie was startled for a bit, but then she looked up from her phone and nodded politely at her classmate.

"Is everything okay? You look confused."

"Why yes, everything is fine."

"Are you sure?" Cherie raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it's just a trivial matter, I just can't seem to find my way to the Botanical Garden..." she showed Cherie a map on her phone.

"Oh don't trust Google map, I'll show you the way."

"A-are you sure, you don't have to..."

She walked to the opposite direction she came from and Bonnie followed, "Yeah I'm sure, it's been a while since I've been there anyways."

"Oh, thank you very much," Bonnie said, "So you are a frequent visitor of the Botanical Garden?"

"I like plants, that's why. I live in an apartment so I don't have a garden. Visiting the Botanical Garden had been a habit of mine when Carmen wasn't free to go home with me in elementary school."

It wasn't until a moment later that Cherie realised she started on a sore topic, she was just about to apologise...

"Oh, what a pity," Bonnie replied, flatly, "My place has a small yard, I think the crocuses and the irises are starting to bloom, you're welcome to come and see anytime." She smiled, still flatly.

"Oh, thank you!" Cherie said, glad that Bonnie wasn't taking any offence on the name mentioned, but she decided to change the topic just in case, "So... um... why are you going to the Botanical Garden?"

"Yesterday after school, it was raining, right? I didn't have an umbrella with me but a senpai lent me hers. She said that if I couldn't find her at school today, I can bring it to the Botanical Garden and give it to her grandmother — the curator. Or, maybe she'd be there too."

"Oh, I see."

They walked in silence for a little while.

"So, Kibouka-san, just now you did mention Akahoshi Carm..."

"We're here!" Cherie interrupted, "Oops, sorry, you were saying...?"

"N-never mind..."

They swung open the doors to the greenhouse and saw three figures inside, an elderly woman, a magenta haired girl and a shorter, navy haired girl.

"Oh my, we got visitors," the elderly woman, also known as Hanasaki Kaoruko, the curator of the Botanical Garden, grinned at them.

"Long time no see, Hanasaki-sensei! Tsubomi-san, Erika-san too." Cherie grinned back as she and Bonnie walked to them.

"It's really been a long time, Cherie-chan," the magenta haired girl, Hanasaki Tsubomi turned towards them and waved, "Why haven't you been stopping by lately?"

"Sorry Tsubomi-san, middle school life is busy."

"Your friend?" Erika gestured at Bonnie.

Cherie swung her head back for a second to take a look at Bonnie and then answered, "Um yes, this is my new friend, Bonnie Sorano, but actually she's here to..."

"Ah, you're the girl from yesterday," Tsubomi recognised.

"Yes, I'm here to return your umbrella."

Tsubomi rose from her seat and retrieved her umbrella, "Thanks." Then she suggested, "Hey, if you guys are not in a rush, how about we have tea together?"

"Sure! Sorano-san?"

"Uh... sure!" she beamed.

They sat down and Erika poured them cups of tea.

They chattered and giggled, but Bonnie found that she couldn't jump into the chat. She was quite distraught. One, what is that giant doll in the middle of the greenhouse. Two, does Kibouka-san want anything to do with the fight between her and Akahoshi-san? Three, did Kibouka-san just call her a friend?

"Sorano-san, are you sure you don't have anywhere else to go?" Cherie asked.

Bonnie found that she was looking at her watch the whole time she was distracted from the conversation, but that made her remember.

"Oh no, I forgot I have cram school to attend to!"

"Then we better get going if you don't wanna be late!" Cherie immediately reacted, "Sorry, Hanasaki-sensei, Tsubomi-san, I'll stop by again tomorrow."

They managed to hear "Okay, see you." before hurrying out of the glass door.

"I'm so sorry, Kibouka-san, for having you to go out of your way like this," Bonnie apologised, half panting.

"No, it's alright, it was..."

She was interjected by a sudden explosion in the distance and a thud next to them — it was Cure Accel!

She landed on her knees and left two shallow trails on the road, she immediately noticed company, "Cher... I mean, run away, hurry, both of you!"

Bonnie was a bit stunned but she collected herself as Cherie grabbed her hand and ran, with Cure Accel fighting behind them to protect them from mini street lamp missiles.

 _I just have to get Sorano-san somewhere safe, quick, then I'll go back and help her..._ Cherie thought.

She heard Bonnie gasp so she looked back as well, just in time to see Cure Accel fall down and street lamp missiles flying to them.

Bonnie slipped her hand out of Cherie's and buried her face in both her hands and stifled a scream.

"Iris!" Cherie whispered with force through gritted teeth.

"As you wish. Come forth, Future Seed!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME!"

And the next second, Bonnie realised that the person in front of her was no longer Cherie Kibouka, she was a Precure, slicing the mini street lamp missiles in two with a swing of her hand.

"Ahehe..." Cure Hope turned back and faced Bonnie, "look, I'll explain later, right now we need to get you somewhere safe!"

Hope helped her stand up and run.

"You can't always do this..." Iris sighed, flying next to Hope.

"Do what? Saving my friends?"

"Blowing your cover!"

"Oh... we'll talk about that later."

"There is no talk..."

"Aha! Sorano-san, you can hide here," Hope stopped at an alleyway, "I don't know if any villains saw you with us so I'd better make you completely out of sight... Ah! You sit on this crate, I'll use the other ones to hide you. Sorry for the cramped environment, I promise I'll come back real quick."

Bonnie nodded, still visibly trembling.

"Don't worry," Hope put her hands on Bonnie's, "Iris, can you stay with her?"

"Roger."

Hope closed the crate gap and darted to the battlefield.

* * *

The bigger street lamp used it's light bulb arms to punch the two present Cures.

"Ow, that light bulb is hot," Wonders pouted quietly.

"That's why I don't use tungsten light bulbs at home," Accel chortled.

Hope suddenly came flying from above and headbutted the street lamp before it had another chance to fire another barrage of missiles.

"Finish it, girls!" she exclaimed while rubbing her aching forehead.

"PRECURE! SPECTRUM FANTASY!"

The Teiton was purified and Hope retrieved the Shine.

"Well, that was a quick battle," Protea commented.

"Yeah, did Kiba find some random guy on the street to be a victim?" Hope asked as she return the Shine to its owner.

"It wasn't Kiba, it was Doku," Accel corrected.

"Eh?! Doku?! If it's Kiba then I get it because he's kinda laid back and dumb but Doku doesn't seem like that kind of person."

"Did you already have the Time Wraiths' personalities in you database?" Wonders sweatdropped.

"Maybe she just wasn't in the mood to be working," Lupine shrugged.

"It's almost a bit too easy," Protea contemplated, "it's almost like she was creating..."

"A distraction!" Wonders finished his sentence.

"We gotta check on Sorano-san!" Hope gasped.

* * *

"Sorano-san!"

Bonnie heard Hope's voice and saw the crates being moved away, then Hope sighed in relief as she saw both her friends were still there.

"Iris, was there anyone suspicious approaching you girls?" Hope asked right after they walked out of the crates 'room'.

"No, why?"

"The battle was awfully easy, we were distraught that it might be a distraction to attack you two," Lupine explained, and quickly added, "Glad that we're proven wrong."

"Us two?" Bonnie asked, "What is going on, Kibouka-san?"

Wonders, Accel, Lupine and Protea all slightly widened their eyes in alert.

"Oh no you didn't, tell me you didn't..." Wonders facepalmed.

"You can't keep disclosing your identity to every new friend you make," Accel said.

"I didn't have a choice!" Hope said in her defense.

"...next time..." Accel added.

"Um..." Bonnie raised a hand, "can I ask..."

"I might need a long time to explain..." Hope pointed out, "You may want to go to cram school for now and we can talk about everything over lunch tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure... see you tomorrow."

The girls detransformed right after she left.

"Cherie," Cecilia said with a worried tone, "you really should be careful on what you tell who."

"You don't trust Sorano-san?"

Cecilia and Isabella exchanged uneasy glances.

"Actually, Cherie," Isabella started, "it's not Sorano-san that we don't trust." She paused, wondering what words would hurt less, "the one we don't trust, is Carmen Akahoshi..."

"What? You don't trust Carmen? Why?" Cherie demanded.

"We're not suspecting she's a spy or anything, but she just isn't the friendly type of girl that's worth putting too much trust in."

"Just be more secretive and careful around Akahoshi-san, alright? Not just for the sake of Cure Hope, but for the sake of Cherie Kibouka."

"I-I understand..."

* * *

That night

Cherie just finished her shower and finished drying her hair, she entered her room and found Iris already sleeping soundly on her desk.

She smiled and sat down, gently stroking Iris. But that smile quickly turned into a frown.

 _Carmen... what they said aren't true, right?_

* * *

At about the same time

"Ok, that's all of it," Bonnie said as she closed her assignments binder.

She suddenly slumped against her seat.

 _Friends, she said..._

* * *

 **A/N: Don't be too quick on conclusions, next chapter will tie up some loose ends from this one, and maybe don't tie some up at all.**

* * *

 **End of Chapter 6**


	7. Chapter 7: Conflict, Resolved

**Onward! Precure 7**

* * *

Chapter 7: Conflict, Resolved

"What happened to your brilliant plan now, Doku?" Kiba asked as he lounged around their base.

"Yeah, why the long face?" quipped Gisou.

"Who knew my target's Shine would start brightening again so soon. Such a shame, it was dimming so prettily," Doku rubbed her forehead, "Besides, who'd have known there are other Precures."

Kiba rose from his lounging position and Gisou finally looked interested.

"Other Precures, you say?" Gisou questioned.

"Yes, but it's strange, they didn't fight me, they only stopped me."

"Who were they? How many were there?" Kiba urged.

"2. But they didn't introduce themselves. One of them is a soft-spoken pink girl, the other is an annoyingly cheery blue one. And they looked older than Cure Hope, Cure Wonders and Cure Accel."

"Seem like it's time for me to go," a sweet voice joined.

It belonged to a girl who looked barely 14 years old, she had red-violet hair flowing in a long braid behind her. She wore a leather jacket, a black one-piece dress and black boots.

Even though she was part of the Time Wraiths, her eyes were not the reptilian one.

"If you guys can't handle them, it's my turn."

"Get lost, Tsubasa, I'll go this time," Gisou snapped and exited the room, but not before purposely pushing Tsubasa in the shoulder when he walked past.

"Suit yourself," Tsubasa shrugged.

* * *

"Got it?"

"Pretty much," Bonnie replied, "Rest assured, your secrets are safe with me."

"Thank you, Soran... Bonnie-chan," Cherie said.

"You're welcome. But there are other things I want to ask you about."

"What is it?"

"You were friends with Carmen since long ago, right? What kind of girl was her?"

Cherie was surprised at that question, but she answered all the same, "She was a great, loyal friends. I've known her in third grade and we've been friends since. I was always alone before she came around, you see."

"Did she ever tell you that you were... you know, incompetent at something?"

"Yeah, she's the kind that blurts out criticism before she knew she said them, I'm like that sometimes too."

"Don't you ever get tired of her judging you?"

"It's really uncanny. Though we fight quite often, we never drift apart."

Cherie was afraid she might've said something sensitive, and yet, Bonnie only stood up expressionlessly, "Thank you for telling me, Cherie-san. Now I must go, I think I haven't taken some stuff out of my locker."

"Uh... okay, see you in lesson."

Iris, who had been silent since they finished explaining Precure stuff, finally had the chance to speak, "Bonnie-chan doesn't look like she feel well."

"You think I said something sensitive?"

"I don't think so. I think she hadn't healed at all."

"I really want to know what the heck Carmen said, she's never made me that depressed before!" Cherie threw her hands up in frustration.

"You can just ask her."

"Yeah right, I'll think about it."

* * *

"Let's walk home together, Cherie," Cecilia suggested after school.

"Sorry, girls," Cherie replied, "Today I gotta help Carmen with something."

"Oh, what is it?" Isabella asked.

"You wanna come see for yourself?" Carmen smiled.

"Yeah sure... I guess?"

"Alright! Then off to my place we go!"

* * *

"So what's this all about?" Isabella asked.

"Long story," Cherie started explaining, "In the spring break, Carmen rented a display window in a rental showcase so now she make things that she sells. Sometimes I help her with it 'cause I love DIY crafts!"

"Oh, that's interesting, what do you sell?" Cecilia questioned.

"Slime mostly," Carmen answered, "A lot of girls like it. And other crafts that Cherie wants to try."

"I like slime too, but not as much as other girls," Isabella stated, "But I can help with making them."

"Sounds fun," Cecilia grinned.

"Yeah, let's get this craft party started!" Cherie cheered.

* * *

"Say, Akahoshi-san," Cecilia looked up from the slime they were making.

"Just call me Carmen, no honorifics needed."

"Alright, Carmen, this might be a sensitive topic but um... we're all curious about what exactly happened between you and Bonnie-chan."

"Yeah, she was really upset," Isabella added.

Carmen went silent for a moment. The other girls gave her the time she needed.

"You know, now that I think about it, I really was being reckless. I let my frustrations get the best of me and told her she really sucks writing lyrics and singing, I even tore a few of her sheet musics apart..."

"Ooo, that's brutal," Isabella cringed.

"You bet!" Cherie said, "Bonnie-chan didn't show up at choir yesterday! I don't think she's the type of person to not say anything and disappear."

"I know. I thought maybe if I don't interact with her for some time she would get over it, but seems not."

Cherie smiled, "Did you forget? The magic we could use at times like these."

"Of course I remember!"

"What... what magic are you talking about?" Cecilia asked.

"Relax, it's not what you think," Cherie mouthed back.

"I'll apologise to Sorano tomorrow," Carmen said.

They all smiled.

* * *

"Thank you for your help today," Carmen said while she escorted the girls downstairs, "We've made enough goods for a few weeks."

"You're welcome, we've enjoyed ourselves too," Isabella smiled.

"See you tomorrow, Carmen."

"Bye bye."

Carmen turned back to her house and the girls walked together on the way back home, chattering and laughing, until suddenly they saw Bonnie coming the opposite way, hanging her head and looked really depressed.

"Bonnie-chan?" Cherie called, "Is everything alright?"

"No..." she cried.

"Tell us what happened," Cecilia said and handed Bonnie a tissue.

"Well..."

* * *

(Flashback)

I was the last one to leave the classroom and there's no one else in here so I didn't even noticed that I've started singing.

But then Akahoshi-san suddenly walked in.

"Listen, Sorano," she said, "About the music presentation, I was wrong..."

I thought she was apologising, so I interrupted, "It's okay, I think you wer..."

She cut me off, "Do you still have the sheet musics?"

"Um... yes..." I took a copy out from my bag and handed it to her.

She immediately threw the papers on the ground and stomped on it.

"What...!?"

"You know what? This creation is so freaking bad it shouldn't exist in the world!"

"I- I... you..."

"Have you put effort into this dump? If you had then maybe you don't just suck at music, music is a waste of time to you, you really should stop singing and lyrics-writing!"

After that I immediately packed all my things and rushed out of the room without saying a word.

* * *

"Hold on a second, Carmen said that?!" Cherie exclaimed.

"Yes."

"Bonnie-chan, when did this happen?" Isa frowned.

"About twenty minutes ago."

"But that's not possible," Cecilia stated, "unless..."

"Have you figured it out?" a figure on a nearby rooftop suddenly shouted.

Before any of the girls could react, a brown energy ball shot from the rooftop and sunk into Bonnie's chest, bringing her Shine to the rooftop a moment later.

"Bonnie-chan!"

The figure jumped off the roof, she was Carmen at first, but upon landing, she became...

"Gisou!" Cecilia rasped.

"Tada!" Gisou cackled, "Surprise?"

"Boo!" Isa suddenly shouted, startling Gisou, then she laughed, "Now that's what I call surprise! Freak!"

"Tsk, guess not," Gisou muttered. Then he threw the Shine randomly up into the air, it merged with an unknowing sparrow. The bird turned into a Teiton as Gisou lazily commanded, "Just do your thing, Teiton."

"Let's go, girls!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME!"

"Unlimited anticipation towards the future, Cure Hope!"

"Unlimited imagination towards the future, Cure Wonders!"

"Unlimited motivation towards the future, Cure Accel!"

Before any of the girls could launch an attack, the giant sparrow took off. The wind created from its massive wings blew the girls back to Carmen's house.

"P-Precure?!" Carmen observed from inside her home, astonished.

Once the wind died down and the Cures found that they can move again, they sprang themselves up and engaged the Teiton.

Accel and Hope landed on its back, they grabbed right about the left humerus of the bird, though it didn't seem to have much effect. On the other hand, when Wonders sprang herself up, she aimed at the bird's head, now she barely vaulted herself over the Teiton's snapping beak.

"Wah!" she yelped.

"Quit fooling around and come help us!" Accel huffed.

"Easy for you to say, I almost got eaten by a giant bird!" though Wonders said that, she still ran to help the other two.

But before she could reach them, the Teiton boosted upward vertically at lightning speed, blowing the Cures off its back.

Accel remarked as they landed on the ground, "We just dropped fifty feet from the sky and we survived it. I feel like I can't study science while being a Precure."

Wonders ignore her and... "Hey... where's Hope?"

They looked back up and noticed Cure Hope dangling from the bird's claw.

"She's on your claw!" Gisou shouted to the bird.

The bird crouched to look at its feet. Then it let out a deafening shriek.

Hope fell from the sky and created a pit in the ground as she landed.

As Wonders and Accel helped her up, she asked, "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Accel retorted, "The shriek? Is it possible to not hear?"

"No! Bonnie was saying something within the shriek."

"Well, what?"

"Something like... grrr! I don't know! I only heard a few words!"

The Teiton didn't give them time to analyse, it squawked at them. The others jumped away, but Hope stayed. She held in her scream at the painfully ear-splitting noise to hear what she needed to.

"Hope!" the others shouted.

"Shh!" she hushed them.

"I hate hiding my feelings... but I don't know what to do other than being sweet and kind and not upset about anything... but Akahoshi-san made me see that it doesn't work... I was upset, really upset... but I couldn't possibly show it to her... she would never be friends with me again after that... I don't want to be alone!"

That was all she could hear before her ears literally start to split.

"Hope! Wonders! Accel!" Iris, Lupine and Protea came flying.

"Hope, did you go nuts?!" Protea berated, "A few more seconds and you would've gone deaf!"

"Please tell me you're okay!" Iris said.

"I'm fine," Hope sat up feebly, "I heard all of it!"

"What exactly did you hear?" Wonders asked.

"She's keeping herself away from anger. That's why she was so upset, because she couldn't let out her true feelings!"

"And that's why the Teiton is so strong!" Accel deduced, "it is letting out all her bottled up anger!"

"We need to save her, fast!" Lupine said, "All the bottled up emotions are speeding up the dimming of her Shine!"

Accel agreed, "Okay, Hope, what do we..." Before she finished the sentence, the bird rocketed at her and captured her with its claws.

"Yeah! You just got clawed," Gisou cackled.

"Stop!" a voice that didn't belong to any of the Cures or the fairies demanded. It was Carmen.

Everyone stopped and looked at her, she charged from the pavement of her house to the Cures.

The Teiton let go of Accel and shrieked at Carmen, she was flung back to her house.

Wonders darted over to help her up, "What are you doing? It's dangerous here!"

"Precure-san, the one who made that bird so upset was me! I started this mess, I'm the source of her bottled up anger, I need to make up for it!"

She dashed out despite Wonders' warnings, "Sorano! Please listen to me! I was really frustrated and I just blurted out insults that was really cruel. I know that doesn't justify anything, and I can't take back what I said or done, I'm really sorry! Please believe me now when I say I was wrong, please don't hurt other people because of my mistake!"

Hearing that, the bird slowly landed and let go of Accel.

"And I know you have every right in the world to squawk at me again..."

It opened its bill, but no sound came out.

"Bonnie-chan is fighting its control," Wonders realised, "Accel, let's hold it down!"

"Roger that."

They each grabbed a bird feet.

"Teiton! Swing them off!" Gisou ordered.

The Teiton struggled, but it couldn't take flight.

"Hope, it's time to beak back!" Accel yelled.

"Understood, PRECURE! DREAM BIG ARROW!"

The Teiton reverted into a sparrow and a Shine.

"Ugh!" Gisou groaned, "Seems like the target Doku had her eyes on weren't so good after all!"

The Cures smiled and returned the Shine.

"Precure-san..." Carmen approached them, "Will Sorano Be okay?"

"She'll be fine, and also the monster conveyed a lot of her bottled up emotion so she should feel even better when she wakes up," Hope assured, "One more thing..."

"What?"

"The pause the Teiton had when you apologised, I think it means that this girl forgave you."

"Really?" Carmen beamed, "I guess it's really magic. Thank you, Precure-s..."

When she looked, the Cures and the fairies were already gone.

They hopped to a safe distance before detransforming.

"Phew, that was a tough fight," Isabella commented.

"Cherie, I still don't get it, what was the magic you and Carmen were going on about?" Cecilia asked.

Cherie smiled, "We taught ourselves that, the magic of conceding."

"Seems like it's pretty useful," Iris gestured for us to look back. We saw Carmen apologising and they making up.

"See? Isn't it just a miraculous magic?"

"I think it called upon another kind of magic," Cecilia smiled.

"What?"

"The magic of forgiveness."

* * *

 **End of Chapter 7**


	8. Chapter 8: A Shocking Encounter

**Onward! Precure 8**

* * *

 **A/N: In case any superfans noticed, I completely ignored the bird's eye view of the city's landscape in every single episode (though I did noticed that there are many spacious green areas, probably earthquake precautions).**

* * *

 **Bold: emphasise**

* * *

Chapter 8: A Shocking Encounter

Cherie, Cecilia and Isabella were texting in their own whatsapp group.

"Hey, you girls wanna hang out this Saturday?" Cherie asked.

"Sure," Cecilia replied, "What's the occasion?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that me and my primary school bestie are gonna hang out on Saturday and I think maybe it's time I introduce you girls to each other."

"ThisisProtea. Isaaskedwasn'tyourprimaryschool bestfriendCarmen."

"Protea, why are you using Isa's phone?! And what happened to space bar?!"

"Isaisinthetoilet. Andwhatisthisspacebaryouspeakof?"

"Uh... it's at the bottom of the screen..." Cherie typed, "Anyway, Carmen was my really good friend, but Susan is my best best best friend. It's funny, I've known Carmen since primary 3 but I've only known Susan since p5."

"I'm free on Saturday," Cecilia replied.

"Isa too. (I found the space bar!)" Protea typed.

"Great, let's meet at the Petit Mall near to the Botanical Garden on Saturday some time after lunch, I have an appointment with the doctor in the morning."

"Why? Are you sick?" Cecilia asked.

"No, my eczema doctor. Remember my skin problem? Father said that it's getting more severe, so he wants to consult a doctor."

"Oh ok, let's meet up at 1:30 then?"

"Sure!"

* * *

"Boo!" A voice shouted next to Cherie's ear.

Cherie wasn't even scared, instead, she immediately turned around and hugged the figure, "Susan! It's been two weeks!"

"Yes... and I'm still taller than you," Susan beamed.

"No, I'm taller!" Cherie pouted.

"I'm significantly taller than both of you," another voice whispered into. Cherie's ear.

"That's not fair, Cecilia!" Cherie pouted again.

"Haha, don't worry, Isa is still of the same height as you guys," Cecilia laughed.

"Why, you!" Isa growled and started chasing Cecilia everywhere.

Cherie giggled as she introduced, "Susan, that's Cecilia Nijino and that's Isabella Aozora. They're my new friends in junior high and they're kinda silly and funny. Call them by just their first name, ok?" Then Cherie shouted to the other two, "Girls, this is Susan Amaigawa, my BFF! Got that?"

"Got it!" they shouted back but never stopped running.

Susan chuckled, "They seems fun! So umm... should we stopped them? Since, Cecilia is wearing a mini skirt... it's kinda dangerous to..."

"Since when does any of us care about demeanour?"

"Haha, well, never!"

Suddenly, Cecilia dashed behind Cherie and said, "Protect me, Isa-monster is going to stomp on my foot!"

Isabella walked towards them while panting.

"Otsukare," Susan said and patted Isa's back.

"Thanks," Isabella replied and said to Cecilia, "You know, because you're taller than us all, us playing these kind of games are getting you weird glances."

Cecilia's face immediately heated up. Isa pointed at her and laughed. Susan covered her mouth and giggled, while Cherie whispered to her, "Yeah, this happens like every recess every day, it's practically a routine. Now you know why I'm laughing much more than before."

"Haha, I certainly do."

* * *

The girls were sitting on a bench and eating ice cream while chatting.

"Girls, let's take a selfie," Cecilia suggested, "Say 'cheese'!"

Cecilia looked at the photo and laughed uncontrollably.

"What? What? Let me see," Cherie said and looked. In the photo, Isa positioned her chocolate ice cream to look exactly on Cherie's head, in fact, it looked less like ice cream and more like... well, you get it.

"Isa!"

"Isa, I sent the photo to you," Cecilia grinned.

"No! Delete that!" Cherie yelled.

"Cherie, watch your ice cream!" Susan warned.

"Oh thanks."

Meanwhile, Isabella's ice cream fell right out of her hands.

"Ah!"

Susan extended her arm and caught the cone, "Got it!" But then, the top of the ice cream fell off.

"Serves you right, Isa," Cherie chuckled.

"At least I saved the cone," Susan said, and looked inside, "and there's still a bit of ice cream in there."

Isabella sighed, "Well, I guess it's still edible."

"By the way..." Susan said as she handed the cone back to Isa, "I think you've already known since you're a fan, Cherie, but did you know that there are a new group of Precure in town?"

Isabella stuck her chin in the cone and came out saying, "Chocolate goatee!"

The girls laughed for a long time.

"Oh that was a good one," Susan remarked, "Okay, back to Precure business."

"I thought I could distract her from that," Isa whispered to Cecilia.

"Yeah of course I know, how can I possibly not know?" Cherie replied, she sounded cheerful but there's still a bit of nervousness in her voice.

"Yeah, I can see you've already made plush toy out of their fairies," Susan gestured at Cherie's opened handbag and giggled.

"Is that a normal thing to do?" Cecilia asked.

"She made hair clips and bracelets based on Heartcatch Precure's fairies for me in fifth grade."

"Aww that's so cute," Cecilia cooed.

"Well, share if you have any new info with us, Cherie," Susan suggested.

"Not much... heheh..."

"Is that so? That's unusual..."

"Right, so let's continue shopping!" Isa suggested.

"Great, let's go," Cecilia agreed.

So the girls leapt off the bench and continue chatting while walking.

"Come to think of it, you've never told us how you and Susan were friends," Isabella pointed out.

"...I really don't remember the exact details," Cherie said.

"... Me either, it's so strange..."

Susan added, "It's like our friendship is so natural that it was there since... forever!"

"Yeah, we were like magnets, we probably just became friends on the first day of the semester for absolutely no reason whatsoever."

"How come you don't remember?" Cecilia asked, "I always remember the day me and Isa became friends."

"Well, do tell us, I wanna hear," Susan stepped out the fitting room.

"We were..."

Unfortunately, duty didn't let her finish the conversation. They saw mall security guards evacuating people outside the boutique they were in.

"What is happening?!" Susan exclaimed.

Grabbing Susan's hand and started to run, Cherie replied, "Whatever is happening, it's not something good, let's move."

The four girls ran along with crowd. But when not long after, Cherie purposely let go of Susan and the three of them hid in a bend leading to a washroom.

Cecilia spoke, "Why can't we see the Teiton out of the mall's giant glass windows? Where in the world is it?"

"I don't know but we'll find out once the tide of escapees quiet down," Cherie said.

They waited for a few minutes before they transformed to ensure no one would be there to see them. Then they decided to search from the direction everyone ran from.

"It's so quiet in here," Lupine pointed out.

"Yeah, I don't think a Teiton can be this quiet," Protea added.

"Well, everyone was running from this way, it has to be here somewhere," Accel said.

Suddenly, they saw a girl, not much older than themselves, in front of them.

"Miss, what are you doing here? Why didn't you escape with everyone else?" Wonders asked.

"There's nothing to run from..." she muttered.

"What? I thought there was..." Hope frowned, "Wait a second..."

"That's right," the girl said, "I am what they were running from."

The girl sent out three consecutive blasts, the Cures grabbed their respective fairies and evaded reflexively.

"So you are a comrade of Kiba and the others!" Iris exclaimed.

"Oh I wouldn't say that. I prefer the word 'superior', after all, I am the Tsubasa, the direct deputy of Empty-sama."

"Eh?! But you look so... young..." Wonders said with a dumbfounded expression.

"Oh..." Tsubasa retorted, "I look about as old as you all are." As soon as she finished her sentence, she disappeared on the spot, reappeared behind Wonders, aimed a scorching blaze at her and sent her crashing into and breaking a glass display window.

"Oh my goodness!" Lupine exclaimed as she tended to her partner.

Tsubasa was just smirking at her accomplishment when suddenly she was jabbed in the stomach.

"You aren't the only one who's fast, you know?" Accel stood in front of her.

"Heheh... try me," Tsubasa challenged, suddenly, wings as black as ink sprouted from her back. She and Accel were then engaged in a fleet battle that mortal eyes couldn't follow.

"You go, girl!" Protea cheered.

"You can actually see Accel is winning?" Hope questioned the fairy as she tried countless time to join in the battle, but couldn't find a chance.

"Actually I have no idea..."

"Well, now you do!" Tsubasa's voice rang as Accel plunged from the ceiling and Hope caught her.

"It's not fair that she can fly!" Accel rasped.

"Oh, now that's a problem we can fix," Iris said, transforming into a beam of light entering Hope's Locket. Then wings shaped exactly like the Locket materialised on Hope's back. Protea and Lupine did the same.

"You can do that?" Accel asked.

"Yup."

"Well, why didn't you give us wings when we were fighting the Sparrow last week?!"

"We uh..."

"Girls! Where are you?!" Everybody froze when they heard and saw Susan coming into eyesight a few moments later.

But the villainess never stopped, she flew above the girls to send a punch, only to be blocked by Accel while Hope flew over her. Accel proceeded to combat Tsubasa as Wonders joined in after the reddened skin on her back felt less stinging.

Hope grabbed Susan's shoulders and asked anxiously, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you escape with everyone else? You have to go, it's not safe here!"

Susan looked past Cure Hope and into the long corridor, "I did escape but I found that my three friends are missing! I can't leave them in here! I need to find them!"

"I understand your feelings," Hope sighed, "but rest assured, they are alright. Now you must leave too or you won't be as alright as they are!"

Hope escorted Susan away from the battlefield.

"Neither of you are going anywhere!" Tsubasa turned away from Wonders and Accel and shot another blaze at Cure Hope and Susan.

Hope gasped as she realised there's not enough time to evade it. But the next thing she knew is that a yellow Precure jumped before her and a flower-shaped barrier was erected in front of her, blocking the attack.

Tsubasa was stunned at the abrupt appearance of yet another enemy, but there's more.

"MOONLIGHT SILVER IMPACT!"

A much older figure shouted at the end of the corridor and a light beam knocked Tsubasa away.

Susan gasped, "That's..."

"Cure Sunshine, Cure Moonlight!" Hope fangirl squealed, which caused Susan to raise a questioning eyebrow.

Accel laughed and facepalmed while Wonders yelled, "Hope, focus!"

"Right!" Hope snapped out of it and turned back to Susan, "Now let's get you out."

The senpai Precures were about to make their exit, so Cure Sunshine offered, "You can leave her to me."

Hope was worried, but she knew that there's nothing to doubt about the senpais she adored so much, "Thank you."

"Do you best, Cure Hope," Susan said.

"Try not to be so reckless again!" Hope shouted as Cure Sunshine carried her and flew away with a shiny cape.

Hope flew up to the continued battle and stood by her comrades.

"Susan came back for all of us."

"We heard her," Wonders said, "It's hard to believe she'd do that."

"You girls followed me once," Hope said, "Feel how I felt?"

"Yeah," Accel joined in, "kinda guilty we left her and can't tell her our identities."

"It can't be helped," Iris's voice came within the Locket.

"Yeah, bringing her here with you would put her in more danger," Protea said.

"She's just so stupid..." Hope blinked away the tears in her eyes.

"Now that, we can agree on," Tsubasa laughed loudly, "Who in their right mind would do this kind of thing for someone as pointless as a friend?"

The Cures were triggered by this, Accel and Wonders wanted to act on this anger, but Hope raised her hands to stop them.

"A villain like you won't understand loving someone and caring for someone!" Hope exclaimed.

"I do understand! I do know love!" Tsubasa retorted, "But friends may eventually betray you! They made no promises to stay by you forever!"

Hope clenched her fists, "You're wrong! Love and care can come from anywhere!" She flew to close in on Tsubasa.

"Life is not a story! Wake up, Cure Hope!"

Hope froze.

Tsubasa used the chance to blast her away.

Hope crash-landed and stayed down for a second, her face dejected.

"There's no use talking to her, Hope," Iris said.

"You're right," Hope collected herself and struck the archer pose, "PRECURE! DREAM BIG ARROW!"

Sensing their cues, Wonders and Accel joined in.

"PRECURE! SPECTRUM FANTASY!"

"PRECURE! CYCLONE SLASH!"

Tsubasa set up a shield dome around herself, so the Cures added more force to their attacks.

"Her shield is cracking!" Protea cheered.

"But we can't hold up the attacks much longer!" Accel started panting, they all did.

Soon, Tsubasa's shield shattered while their attacks vanished at the same time. All four of them turned out exhausted, but mostly unscathed.

"Not bad, Precure," Tsubasa wheezed.

"You too," Hope panted.

"Try to enlighten me with your friendship philosophy next time," Tsubasa teleported away.

* * *

"Everyone, the danger has been eliminated!" Hope announced to the crowd as they exited the mall.

The crowd went wild as they took the chance to fly away.

"Can anyone spot Susan?" Wonders asked.

Accel replied, "Not ye... oh wait, there she is, follow me!"

The trio landed behind some shrubs to detransform. Then Cherie jumped out to embrace Susan.

"Oh my gosh, where were you three?!" Susan immediately exclaimed.

"We got pushed away by the crowd and we could only go with the flow," Cecilia and Isabella walked out from the shrubs too.

"I was so worried!" Susan said.

"We were too, do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you?" Cecilia lied.

"Ahehe..." Susan laughed, "Believe me, I get it."

"Anyway, I've worried enough for one day!" Isabella groaned, "Let's go somewhere else."

"I know!" Cherie clapped her hands, "Let's go to the Botanical Garden, it just around the corner. Surely, Tsubomi-san and Hanasaki-sensei won't mind us stopping by for tea."

"Yeah, let's go! All this panicking makes me tired, some tea would be nice," Susan concurred as they started walking.

Cecilia chimed in, "I think so too. My neck still hurts from crashi..."

Cherie and Isa made all kinds of gestures to stop her from saying what happened.

"I mean from **tripping** over that darn... sandbag, I mean, who would someone even put a sandbag in the middle of the road, right?" All of the Cures and fairies mentally facepalmed.

Susan sensed a bit of suspicion, but she shrugged it off, "By the way, you won't believe who I saw, Cherie!"

"Oh really, who?" Cherie knew what she was going to say but she played along, trying not to squeal again.

"Not only did I meet the new Precures, I saw Cure Sunshine and Cure Moonlight!"

Now Cherie could squeal all she wanted, "Really? For real? Awesome! Amazing! I want to meet them too! You're so lucky, how'd you meet them? What were they like? Do you think you can give me any new clues?"

"You really met Precures? Like for real?" Cecilia and Isabella played along too.

"One question at a time," Susan chuckled while they arrived at the huge greenhouse.

"Cherie-chan! You've come again!" Tsubomi welcomed.

This time, it wasn't just Tsubomi and Erika, Itsuki and Yuri were there too.

"Seems like you have best friends from secondary school already," Itsuki pointed out.

"Yes, Cecilia Nijino and Isabella Aozora."

"I heard that there was a monster attack in the mall just around the corner," Tsubomi stated, "Were you girls there, by any chance?"

"We're all fine. Actually, Tsubomi-san, you won't believe what Susan saw!"

"Really?" Yuri giggled, "Let's talk over tea, shall we? Let me fetch a few more cups."

The girls couldn't wait for Yuri to get back, Susan started speaking and gesturing dramatically to tell the older girls all about what — who — she saw.

"And then they carried me and flew away!" she finished.

"Wow!" Erika exclaimed as she gave glances to Itsuki and Yuri who had just sat back down saying "As awesome as ever, huh?", though unbeknownst to Susan and the others.

"This means that the Heartcatch Precure really do exist!" Cherie cheered excitedly, "This is evidence! Surely no one can deny their existence anymore just because of the three year time gap."

The older girls giggled and discussed with them. Little did Cherie and the girls knew who they were talking to was exactly who they were talking about.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 8**


	9. Chapter 9: Insecurities of the Past

**Onward! Precure 9**

* * *

 **Previously on Onward! Precure 9:**

 **Cherie, Cecilia and Isabella went on a shopping trip together with Susan, a longtime best friend of Cherie's. However, a new enemy showed up to crash the party, a young girl named Tsubasa with unprecedented powers stood in the way of our heroines. They managed to save Susan from a deadly situation with a little help from their senpais, two of the Heartcatch Precures. Tsubasa finally retreated, but will the peace last?**

* * *

 **Bold: emphasise**

 _Italics: thoughts_

 _ **Bold+italics: flashback**_

CAP LOCK: SHOUT/TECHNIQUES

* * *

(Cherie's POV)

 ** _"Can I join your group?" I asked._**

 _ **"Yeah, we're missing one person anyway so..."**_

 _ **"Hey, can I join your group?" someone else asked.**_

 _ **"Yes of course! Sorry, Cherie. Maybe next time."**_

 _ **"Oh... ok..."**_

* * *

"PRECURE! SUSUME!" I flew down from the rooftop and landed as Cure Hope, "Unlimited anticipation towards the future, Cure Hope!"

 _It's been some time since the ordeal with the girl called Tsubasa. She was really strong. But we have been getting stronger too, I can feel it; not exactly her level but stronger nevertheless. Nothing special happened after that, and of course, that's good news! It's just that..._

Iris came out from my Locket as my wings dissipated. I complained, "Jeez... the last time I take a toilet break at lunch..."

"You're here," Wonders jumped to my side.

"Sorry for the wait," I replied, "Need any help?"

"Nah, let us handle this."

I saw Cure Accel slip under the turtle Teiton, stood as tall as she could, and struck with her palm, "ACCEL RUSH!"

The turtle was propelled upwards, and crash-landed on its back. It struggled, but couldn't move after all.

"Nice!" I complimented.

"Now for the finishing touch!" Wonders grinned, "PRECURE! SPECTRUM FANTASY!"

The Teiton was purified.

 _Cecilia and Isabella have always been best friends. That fight split them for a few weeks, but now their friendship is as strong as ever. While I..._

Wonders retrieved the Shine and returned it, "Great job, Accel, you totally ruled the battlefield!" They high-fived.

Accel shrugged, "Today's an easy fight."

I smiled a bit, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

We walked back at a fast pace to our next English lesson.

 _While I'm just an outsider..._

 _As always._

* * *

"Good afternoon, students," Kimori-sensei said, "Today, you'll start on a new project. I know the mid-terms are coming but you will get started first and continue afterwards."

Everyone looked confused.

"This year's English form activity would be a drama performance. The 32 of you will split into groups of 8. Each group will create a drama revolving around school life and perform in class. The best performance will be chosen to perform in front of the whole form. Now, I'll give you all about 20 minutes to group and discuss the first draft of the plot, you may leave your seats."

Instantly, I joined Cecilia and Isa, then gestured for Carmen and Bonnie to join us. The other few slots were filled in by some boys in our class, Jeffrey Yuuki, Samuel Manaka and Henry Genki.

And so, I immediately started leading the discussion, "I think we can make a story about bullying since that is quite a serious problem, but that would require some information. I mean, I don't think I've ever been bullied before so we need some real cases to make it realistic."

"Cherie, there's no need to be so serious about it," Carmen said, "It's just a situation where someone is treated unfairly by his or her peers. Besides, I honestly think you've been bullied in primary school."

"She doesn't give off the vibes of a victim though," Samuel, who was also from my primary school, commented.

"Anyway, is this theme alright for everyone?" I interrupted. Everyone nodded.

"Okay then. We can talk about the division of work. I think I can handle the script alone, though if anyone else wants..."

"With Kibouka-chan in our group, we're so lucky," Genki-kun whispered to the other boys.

"Yeah, she was really good at English in primary school too," Samuel whispered back.

"We can totally lay back," Yuuki-kun added.

"What about everyone else? What do you wanna do? Props? Backdrop?" I pretended I couldn't hear that and continued.

"Sorry to interrupt," Kimori-sensei suddenly walked here, "Who's your team's leader?"

"Kibouka-chan can be the leader," Genki-kun immediately pointed to me.

"I agree, I agree!"

"Do you want to be the leader? Cherie-chan?" Bonnie asked.

"E-eh... of course, it's a pleasure," I answered, _I have to do it, everyone wants me to, I need to be of use..._

"Okay," Kimori-sensei marked it down on her copy of the group list.

"Let's continue our discussion," Cecilia said, "I think me and Isa can handle the props, is that okay, leader?"

I got pulled back from zoning out, "Yeah sure, just let me know if you need help."

"Cherie, are you okay?" Carmen asked.

"Is being leader giving you stress?" Isabella asked, "I'm sure you can appoint a sub-leader if you want."

"Oh, no no, it's not that, sorry. Let's get back to the discussion..."

 _I don't want to be an outsider again... I don't want to be neglected... I have to be useful._

* * *

(After school, on the way home)

"Cherie, what's on your mind?" Iris flew to my shoulder.

"Nothing."

"You didn't sound like yourself back in the drama project discussion."

"Iris, you must be imagining things."

"Cherie-chan, who are you talking to?"

I froze and slowly turned around to see who spoke... "Bonnie! Jeez... don't scare me and Iris like that!"

Iris had been holding her breath and now was panting heavily.

Bonnie let out the tip of her tongue and came to stroke Iris's head, "Iris-chan noticed too, hmm? Cherie-chan, you're as easy to read as a book."

"Am I **that** easy to read? **That** easy?"

"Well maybe not **that** easy," Bonnie pondered, "I still can't figure out the reason, but at least I can tell that you were a tad bit troubled since the boys started chattering on their own."

"What?" I pretended to laugh it off, "They were complimenting me, why would I be upset?"

"That's... a good point," Bonnie gave in.

"Something is up with you, Cherie, I just know it," but Iris really didn't, she lied.

"Oh yeah? Name it!"

Iris puffed her cheeks, "Give me some time!"

I inwardly smiled victoriously and turned to Bonnie, "Wanna come to my place for a bit? Since we're on this path already."

"Sure!"

On the way, we talked about various things, but I just knew that they're both watching me closely.

"We're here!" I open the door and showed Bonnie inside and settled her down on the couch.

"Do you want a snack? Me and father made banana cake yesterday."

"Sure, thanks!"

So I went into the kitchen to cut her (and myself heheh) a slice of banana cake.

 ** _..."But I asked if I could join first..." was all I could mumble as they walked away._**

The knife almost slipped when the sudden flashback occurred to me.

 _I'm not doing this wrong, am I?_

...

"Sorry for the wait," I walked out with two slices and an extra small slice of banana cake.

"Itadakimasu!"

"This is really delicious!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Am I lucky to be Cherie's fairy or what?" Iris threw her a smug face.

We both smiled at her, then Bonnie continued to question me, "Cherie, are you really, really, really fine?"

"Yes."

She sighed, "Okay, but when you're not..."

"I know, you'll be there to listen."

She shook her head, "No. We all will be there to listen, Cecilia-chan, Akahoshi-san and Isabella-chan too."

I smiled wider, "Okay..."

 _Sorry, girls, but, I can't stop, I can't take the risk. This is one of the ways that worked for me since primary 3, I won't quit it, just in case._

Iris suddenly shouted, "Cherie! The Time Wraiths!"

I stood up, alerted, "Let's go, Iris!"

"Wait a second," Bonnie stopped us, "Let me go too!"

"Bonnie... you can't, it's really dangerous!"

"Don't worry! I'll hide really good so no one can spot me! I've been thinking, you know? Three 13-year-olds fighting monsters must be tough, so I thought that you deserve to get whatever help or support you can. So even though... I want to but I know I can't support you on the battlefield, I need to support you in the sidelines!"

"Be careful not to let anything happen to yourself!" Iris told her.

"I promise!" Bonnie stood up and nodded determinedly.

I gave in, "Alright. Hold on to me. Iris, the wings."

Iris made her way into my Locket and my wings appeared, while Bonnie widened her eyes in a 'well this is new' manner.

"Let's go."

 _Thank you, Bonnie. But I can handle this, I will handle this._

The Teiton this time was a sphere of creepy-looking fabric.

We landed behind some bushes a safe distance from the Teiton.

"Okay, this will do. Come forth, Future Seed!"

"PRECURE! SUSUME! Unlimited anticipation towards the future, Cure Hope!"

As Cure Hope, I now ordered Bonnie, "Stay here no matter what happens!"

Assured when she gave a big nod, I jumped into action, "Stay right where you are, Kiba!"

"So you've come, little girl."

"I won't let you do anymore harm!"

"Tsk, who said you have to let me? Teiton!"

The Teiton used two scarfs as whips and lashed at me, I barely slipped between them to dodge a very painfully-looking attack.

 _Scarfs... I know!_

I jumped around swiftly while the scarfs lashed here and there. But what I was doing was actually...

"Garment?!" the Teiton exclaimed in confusion as it found its whips tied together in a square knot.

"Hope!" Wonders and Accel came flying.

"What's the situation here?" Wonders asked.

"A clothing manufacturer pooped its pants apparently," Accel joked.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Wonders asked again.

"Uh... I still don't have a plan..." I said, hanging my head.

"Okay never mind, let's make one on the spot."

"Umm... yeah, okay."

Meanwhile, the Teiton successfully untied its whips, "GARMENT!"

Accel and Wonders dive kicked the cloths. The parts they kicked caved in, but soon regenerated.

"HOPE JOLT!" I yelled, sending a blast at the Teiton. However, using a net of elastics, the attack ricocheted back to me.

"Ahhhh!"

"Hope!"

"I'm fine!" With that I dashed at the elastic net and tried to cut it with my hands, of course to no avail. The Teiton used the scarfs again to lash me away.

"What is she doing?" I heard Kiba wondered out loud.

"What is she doing?" the fairies wondered out loud too.

"Hope, wait!" Accel called out.

"Come back! You have to..."

I didn't care. I clenched my fists and kept going, once again trying to cut holes in any parts of the monster.

 _I can handle this, I will handle this, I won't stand by and wait anymore, or else I would only be forgotten._

 _People around me always flock together, leaving me alone when I'm not of use. I don't want this Precure mission to become a typical school project._

"Do you think Hope's a bit off today?" Wonders asked.

"Yeah..." Accel answered.

"She's upset, I don't know why but she is!" Bonnie suddenly spoke to them in the bushes.

"What are you doing here?!" Accel immediately stepped closer to the bush to hide Bonnie's face, "It's not safe."

"I know, that's the reason I'm in here."

"You were saying?" Wonders cut to the chase.

"Oh right, I thought you two noticed too, but apparently not. Cherie-chan was feeling uneasy since English lesson. I don't know the reason but we have to figure that out soon, or else..."

I got trapped inside a top hat in the Teiton which was then used as a cannon to fire me at Kiba. Kiba dug his talons into my neck and pulled me to his height.

 _I... can't breathe..._

"Oh boy," Protea sighed.

"Hope!" Iris and Bonnie exclaimed at the same time.

"Good heavens, what was she thinking?!" Wonders facepalmed, "Lupine, the wings!"

"Sure thi..."

"Wait..." I coughed. I grabbed Kiba's wrist with both of my hands to support myself to fold my legs and jab him in the stomach. I plunged down after his claws left some marks on my neck.

"Tsk," he let out when rubbing his abdomen, "Teiton!"

Suddenly, the Teiton beneath me opened a big hole for me to fall right in.

"Wah!" I yelped as I hit the bottom of the monster, "What?!" I banged and kicked on the wall of fabrics as soon as my breathing was stable again, but it didn't work.

"HOPE JOLT!" I punched the wall but the magic vanished. Hearing a yelp of Accel outside, I realised that my attack must've passed through the cloth, "Oops, sorry about that!"

"Forget that!" Accel shouted, "How do we get you out?"

"I... I don't know!"

"What were you trying to pull off anyway?" Wonders exclaimed, "Taking off by yourself like that?"

"I... don't know..."

"Why didn't you think it through first? It's dangerous!"

"I... I'm sorry! I don't know anymore!"

A short silence followed.

Accel used a gentler tone after my exclamation, "What's happened to you today? You're more reckless than usual."

"It's just that... when I was small, people always try to stay on my good side just to win a favor and then forget about me after I've helped with that. That's why I have to be useful, that was what I need to do to keep everyone from drifting away from me. I know that wasn't right, but I didn't know any other way to avoid being alone! I'm afraid of going back to that stage!" I gave up on attacking the confines and sat down, "I feel that it can happen to me even now..."

A stinging sensation came to my eyes, but no tears came out, "Because... the two of you have always been together, while I'm just an outsider who met you girls halfway! My whole life... I've been an outsider, if I'm not useful enough, I'll never be accepted!"

"Hope..." Accel grinded her teeth, "I'm so peeved with you! ACCEL RUSH!"

"Eh?" I felt something lifting up the monster, then a gust of wind blew it apart and threw me into the sky.

"Wah!" I yelped as I landed on my back painfully.

"Serves you right, silly Cherie," Wonders crosses her arms and then crouched down, "Need a lift? And don't say no or Accel is going to do it again."

My expression softened as I took her hand and stood up.

"You are not going back to that stage as far as we're concerned, Hope!" Accel came support me too, "Jeez... somebody has got to teach you what does teamwork mean!"

"Yeah, Hope," Wonders agreed, "We're a team, comrades, friends. We don't speak conditions. So, forget what young Cherie used to be afraid of, your tomorrow should contain no such fears because you got at least us two..."

"Three!" Bonnie peeped from the bushes.

"Make that a six," Iris landed on my shoulder.

"Us six," Wonders corrected, "here by your side no matter what! We will advance together with you in this road fill with hardship and darkness, and we will vanquish all of it to achieve our goals. What you can't do on your own..."

"We can do it together!" Accel finished her sentence.

I looked beside me, Wonders and Accel smiling back at me. Then I looked backwards, the fairies and the hidden Bonnie supporting me. And somewhere, Carmen, and Susan...

 _I'm such an idiot. What was I thinking? We spent such a long time together already, why didn't I realise the people right in front of my eyes would be enough? Why didn't I notice they are different? Why didn't I trust that they are really my friends?_

"Ready to fight yet?" Kiba yawned above us.

"Girls," I started, "You two just gave me a great idea for a team name."

Practically seeing question marks on their heads, I stood up and continued, "We are the team advancing in sync, striving with all our comrades to protect the world's happily ever after..."

"Oh, I get it!" they jumped up in sync.

"Onward! Precure!"

"You read my mind," I grinned, "Now, for the ongoing battle, just now, Accel, when you blew the Teiton's pieces apart, they regrouped like being sucked in by a magnet which means that there should be one centerpiece that works as the brain. If we separate it from everything else, it can no longer pull tricks to trap us or counter our attacks."

"You mean, trap you and counter your attacks," Accel chuckled.

"Don't let it get to your head, I won't be lame twice," I laughed back.

"Right," Accel then summoned her blue sword and stabbed it into the ground, "PRECURE! CYCLONE SLASH!"

The ground rumbled and a twister shot out from under the Teiton, blowing it up and apart.

"Alright!" Wonders cheered, "Now Lupine, tell me which piece you sense the Shine is in."

"Hmm..." Lupine squinted her eyes, "There! That blue sweater!"

"WONDERS LEVITATION!" she exclaimed, "Got it!" The blue sweater stayed in the air while the others floated to the ground harmlessly.

"PRECURE! DREAM BIG ARROW!"

The sweater was purified. Like the other garments, they went poof and returned to where they should be. Iris caught the Shine and returned it.

"Grrr!" Kiba growled, then instead of retreating, he landed before us and said, "I didn't come here today only to fight, I came to give the fairies a message."

Each of us quickly picked up our fairies and hold them tightly.

"Hahaha," Kiba cackled, "No need to get so sensitive, I only want to tell them it's not looking good for their friend, the clock is ticking." Then he retreated.

I felt Iris trembling in my arms, "What? Who was he talking about?"

"Well..."

"Don't worry about it!" Protea shouted, "He's just trying to scared us!"

"Are you sure?" asked Isabella, detransforming.

"Y-yeah, I'm pretty sure none of the fairies have fallen, or else we would've sensed something, or someone would come to tell us the news, I think," Lupine, too, was trembling, but tried to stay calm.

"Well, if you say so..."

Bonnie stepped out of the bush and stood beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Are you fine?"

I put my hand on hers, "How can I not be? You're all here for me."

Everyone shared a smile.

"Alright, let's go to my home and eat some banana cake to celebrate absolutely nothing!"

"Yay!"

"By the way," Bonnie raised a question, "Why protect the 'happily ever after'? What's there to this phrase?"

"Well," I explained, "Happily ever after is what ends every fairytale. I just thought that..."

"That...?"

"That we maybe... maybe could make a fairytale out of our lives... and everyone's too..."

"That's a great aspiration!" Cecilia encouraged, "Hey! I know it's a bit late but the class association never set a time limit, why don't you add that to the wishing tree too?"

"Yeah, we can all sign on it," Isa agreed.

"Yeah, all four of us," I cheered.

"Eh?!" Bonnie said, "Me too?!"

"Of course!"

"T-thank you..."

So we all smiled, instantly trying to wash away the feeling that our fairies know something they weren't so willing to tell us.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 9**

* * *

 **A/N: In case some of you feel contrived about the sudden revelation of Cherie's anxieties, I don't blame you because it's nearly impossible to catch the super minor hints I've placed here and there, but in hindsight, you might be able to find them.**


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